Systems and methods to secure user identification

ABSTRACT

In one aspect, a computing apparatus is configured to verify a digital signature applied on a set of data received from a user device, including an user ID assigned by a partner system to uniquely identify a user of the user device among customers of the partner system, and a user device identifier identifying the user device. The digital signature is generated via applying a cryptographic one-way hash function on a combination of the set of data and a secret, shared between the computing apparatus and the partner system via a secure communication channel separate from a channel used to receive the set of data.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims the benefit of the filing date of Prov.U.S. Pat. App. Ser. No. 61/537,552, filed Sep. 21, 2011 and entitled“Systems and Methods to Secure User Identification”, the entiredisclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE TECHNOLOGY

At least some embodiments of the present disclosure relate to datacommunications security in general and more specifically but not limitedto secure referral of a user from one computing apparatus to another.

BACKGROUND

Digital signatures have been used to show the authenticity of a digitalmessage transmitted from one computing device to another computingdevice. For example, digital signatures can be used to detect forgery ortampering in software distribution to ensure that the software is fromthe true provider of the software and the software has not been modifiedduring the transmission from the software provider to the software user.

In one embodiment, a digital signature is generated based on the contentof the communication, such as the software to be distributed, such thatif the content of the communication is modified, the digital signaturegenerated from the original content of the communication would not matchwith the content of the modified communication. The digital signature isalso generated based on a secret, without which it is very difficult, orcomputationally infeasible, to generate a proper digital signature for agiven communication. Thus, a properly verified digital signatureindicates that the communication has not been modified, and thecommunication is from the entity that is in possession of the secret.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not limitation inthe figures of the accompanying drawings in which like referencesindicate similar elements.

FIG. 1 illustrates a system to provide services based on transactiondata according to one embodiment.

FIG. 2 illustrates the generation of an aggregated spending profileaccording to one embodiment.

FIG. 3 shows a method to generate an aggregated spending profileaccording to one embodiment.

FIG. 4 shows a system to provide information based on transaction dataaccording to one embodiment.

FIG. 5 illustrates a transaction terminal according to one embodiment.

FIG. 6 illustrates an account identifying device according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 7 illustrates a data processing system according to one embodiment.

FIG. 8 shows the structure of account data for providing loyaltyprograms according to one embodiment.

FIG. 9 shows a system to provide real-time messages according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 10 shows a method to provide real-time messages according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 11 shows a system configured to communicate via a merchantaggregator according to one embodiment.

FIG. 12 shows a system to enroll a merchant according to one embodiment.

FIG. 13 shows a method to provide real-time notifications oftransactions according to one embodiment.

FIG. 14 shows a system to securely identify a user according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 15 shows a method to securely identify a user according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 16 shows a system to prevent unauthorized access to a computingapparatus and/or data tempering according to one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In one embodiment, a communication system is configured to allow a userdevice to communicate with at least two server apparatuses separately.The user device may communicate with a first server apparatus toidentify information about the user of the user device (e.g., enroll theuser in a program in the first server). The first server apparatus mayverify and/or validate the information about the user and then refer theuser to a second server apparatus for related services. The user deviceis configured to transmit the information about the user to the secondapparatus to receive the related services.

In one embodiment, the communication system is configured to ensure thatwhen user information received from the user device is same as the userinformation known to the first server apparatus (e.g., having beenverified and/or validated by the first server apparatus), the userinformation has not been tempered with in providing to the second serverapparatus; and the user of the user device is a known user of the firstserver apparatus.

FIG. 16 shows a system to prevent unauthorized access to a computingapparatus and/or data tempering according to one embodiment.

In FIG. 16, a user device (261) is configured to communicate with aserver A (283) and a server B (285) separately. After communicating withthe user device (261) to identify the user information (281), the serverA (283) is configured to assign a user ID (223) to represent the user ofthe user device (261) and the user information (281) of the user. Theuser ID (223) allows the user device to access services provided on theserver A (283) in relation with the user information (281).

For example, the user information (281) may identify an account of theuser, a communication reference of the user, an identifier of the userdevice (261), etc. The server A (283) may authenticate the user, verifyand/or validate at least some of the user information (281) beforeenrolling the user for the services provided by the server A (283). Theuser ID (223) represents the user as enrolled in the services of theserver A (283). The server A (283) is configured to assign differentuser IDs (e.g., 223) to uniquely identify different users enrolled forthe services provided by the server A (283). In one embodiment, theserver A (283) associates different user IDs (e.g., 223) with differentsets of user information (281) such that a user ID (223) uniquelyidentify a set of user information (281) corresponding to a userenrolled for the services provided by the server A (283).

In one embodiment, after the user device (261) is assigned the user ID(223), the user device (261) may visit the server B (285), which isseparate from the server A (283), for services related to those providedby server A (283). The user device (261) is configured to provide theuser information (281) to the server B (285) to obtain the relatedservices from the server B (285).

For example, the server A (283) is configured in one embodiment toinstruct the user device (261) to obtain a service from the server B(285).

For example, the user device (261) is configured in one embodiment tovisit the server B (285) for a related service when certainpre-determined conditions are satisfied.

For example, the user device (261) is configured in one embodiment as amobile computing device, such as a mobile phone, a smart phone, apersonal media player, a personal digital assistant, a tablet computer,a notebook computer, etc. In one embodiment, the user device (261) isconfigured via an application running inside the user device (261) toaccess services provided by the servers (283 and 285). To receive theservices, the user of the user device (261) is prompted to enroll withthe server A (283); and the server B (285) is configured to provideservices to users who have completed enrollment with the server A (283).

In one embodiment, prior to the user device (261) visiting the server B(285) (e.g., transmitting a request to the server B (285) for aservice), the user device (261) is configured to request (291) a useridentifier (257) from the server A (283) to represent the user of theuser device (261). In response, the server A (283) is configured togenerate a digital signature (296) on a dataset, including the userinformation (281) and the user ID (223), and combine (293) the digitalsignature (296) with the user ID (223) to generate the user identifier(257), in response to the request (291) from the user device (261). Theuser device (261) then receives (295) the user identifier (257) as theresponse to the request (291).

In one embodiment, the user device (261) is configured to separatelystore at least a portion of the user information (281) previouslycommunicated to and/or from the server A (283). Thus, the user device(261) does not have to receive the user information (281) back from theserver A (283) together with the user identifier (295) in the responseto the request (291).

In one embodiment, the user information (281) optionally includes aportion that is assigned and/or provided by the server A (283) andprovided to the user device (261) prior to the server A (283) assigningthe user ID (223) to the user of the user device (261). Examples of suchinformation include an account number, a nick name, an identifier ofservice(s) enrolled, etc.

In one embodiment, the user information (281) optionally includes aportion that is explicitly submitted by the user of the user device(261) to the server A (283) to identify the user. Examples of suchinformation include a street address, a residence address, a mailingaddress, a communication reference for receiving communications on theuser device (261), such as a mobile phone number, an email address, etc.

In one embodiment, the user information (281) optionally includes aportion that can be automatically detected from communications receivedfrom the user device (261), such as an internet protocol (IP) address ofthe user device (261), a Media Access Control address (MAC address) ofthe user device (261), an hardware identifier of the user device (261),etc.

In FIG. 16, the user device (261) is configured to visit (297) theserver B (285) (e.g., by sending an HTTP request, or a request in othercommunications protocols), using the user identifier (257) and the userinformation (281) to identify the user of the user device (261). Theserver B (285) is configured to determine whether the visit (297) is tobe allowed or rejected, based on the user identifier (257).

In one embodiment, the server B (285) is configured to recover (298),from the user identifier, the user ID (223) assigned by the server A(283) and the digital signature (296) signed by the server A (283) onthe dataset in possession of the server A (283) about the user and/orthe user device (261), including the user ID (223) and the userinformation (281). The server B (285) is configured to validate the userID (223) recovered (298) from the user identifier (257) and the userinformation (281) received from the user device (261) in the visit(297), against the digital signature (296) recovered (298) from the useridentifier (257).

In one embodiment, if the validation (299) of the user ID (223) and theuser information (281), against the digital signature (296), issuccessful, the visit (297) from the user device (261) is accepted;otherwise, the visit (297) is rejected.

The successful validation (299) of the user ID (223) and the userinformation (281) indicates that 1) the user of the user device is oneof enrolled users of server A (283), uniquely identified by the user ID(223); 2) the user ID (223) is associated with the user information(281); 3) there is no data tempering in identifying the associationbetween the user ID (223) and the user information (281); and 4) theuser ID (223) and the user information (281) as a whole received fromthe user device (261) are the same as what is known to the server A(283), without any modification.

In one embodiment, if the validation (299) of the user ID (223) and theuser information (281), against the digital signature (296), issuccessful, the server B (285) is configured to provide services to theuser device (261) based on the user ID (223) and/or the user information(281).

In one embodiment, the server A (283) is configured to digitally signthe dataset, including the user information (281) and the user ID (223),using the secret (253).

In one embodiment, the secret (253) is used in a symmetric-keyencryption scheme to generate the digital signature (296). The secret(253) is shared between the server A (283) and the server B (285) forthe verification of the digital signature (296).

For example, in one embodiment, the server A (283) is configured togenerate the dataset by combining at least the user information (281),the user ID (223) and the secret (253) in a predetermined format; and acryptographic one-way hash function, such as that based on SHA-256designed by the National Security Agency (NSA) and published in 2001 bythe National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as a U.S.Federal Information Processing Standard, can be applied to the datasetto generate the digital signature (296). To verify the digital signature(296), the server B (285) is configured to re-create the digitalsignature (296) based on the user information (281) and the user ID(223) received at the server B (285) and compare the re-created digitalsignature (296) with the digital signature (296) recovered (298) fromthe user identifier (257) for verification.

For example, the secret (253) may be included as a portion of thedataset to generate the hash of the dataset that is based at least inpart on the secret (253).

For example, the secret (253) may be used as an encryption key toencrypt a set of data including the user information (281) and the userID (223) to generate the encrypted dataset, on which the one-way hashfunction is applied to generate the digital signature (296). To verifythe digital signature (296), the server B (285) is configured toreconstruct a corresponding set of data including the user information(281) received from the user device (261) and the user ID (223)recovered (298) from the user identifier (257), encrypt thereconstructed set of data using the same secret (253) shared between theserver A (283) and the server B (285), and apply the same one-way hashfunction to generate a reconstructed digital signature (296). The serverB (285) is configured to compare the reconstructed digital signature(296) with the digital signature (296) recovered (298) from the useridentifier (257) for verification.

In one embodiment, the dataset, including the user information (281) andthe user ID (223), is hashed using a cryptographic one-way hashfunction; and the secret (253) is used as an encryption key to encryptthe hash result to generate the digital signature (296). To verify thedigital signature (296), the server B (285) is configured to recreatethe digital signature (296) using the same secret (253) in asymmetric-key encryption scheme for verification, or to decrypt thedigital signature (296) recovered (298) from the user identifier (257)to determine the decrypted hash for comparison with a corresponding hashgenerated from the corresponding received set of data, including theuser information (281) received from the user device (261) and the userID (223) recovered (298) from the user identifier (257). The encryptionand decryption of the digital signature (296) can be implemented with asymmetric-key encryption scheme using the same secret (253) sharedbetween the server A (283) and the server B (285) or, using anasymmetric-key encryption scheme that uses a private key and a publickey. In the asymmetric-key encryption scheme, the secret (283) is usedas a private key in performing encryption on the hash generated by theserver A (283); and the server B (285) is configured to use a public keycorresponding to the private key to decrypt the digital signature (296)recovered (298) from the user identifier (257) for comparison with acorresponding hash generated by the server B (283) from at least theuser information (281) received from the user device (261) and the userID (223) recovered (298) from the user identifier (257). When theasymmetric-key encryption scheme is used, the server A (283) does nothave to reveal the secret (283) to the server B (285).

In one embodiment, the user ID (223) and the digital signature (296)generated by the server A (283) are combined as a single unit of datarepresenting the user identifier (257). Alternatively, the user device(261) may receive the user ID (223) and the digital signature (296) astwo separate units of data from the server A (283) and provide the twoseparate units of data to the server B (285) to equivalently present theuser identifier (257). In one embodiment, the user device is (261) isconfigured to receive the user ID (223) and the digital signature (296)as two separate units of data from the server A (283), and combine theuser ID (223) and the digital signature (296) in a predetermined formatto generate the user identifier (257) as a single unit of data providedin the visit (297).

In one embodiment, the digital signature (296) is valid for a limitedtime period. For example, the server A (283) is configured to include anindication of the current time in the dataset, for which the digitalsignature (296) is created. After recovering (298) the user ID (223) andthe digital signature (296), the server B (285) is configured toidentify, based on the time limit, one or more possible values for thetime indicator used by the server A (283) in generating the digitalsignature (296), and verify the digital signature (296) based on the oneor more possible values for the time indicator. If one of the possiblevalues leads to a successful verification, the visit (297) can beaccepted. If none of the possible values leads to a successfulverification, the visit (297) can be rejected.

In one embodiment, each of the user device (261), the server A (283) andthe server B (285) is implemented as a computing device having at leastone processor and memory storing instructions configured to instruct theat least one processors to perform the operations described herein. Inone embodiment, the computing device can be implemented using one ormore data processing systems illustrated in FIG. 7.

In one embodiment, a computing apparatus is configured to use a hash ofa combination of a user identifier, a secret, information identifying auser device and/or other information to verify the integrity of arequest from a user redirected from a partner system, such as a merchantaggregator configured to enroll merchants and users for services thatare based on transaction data of the enrolled merchants and users.Details and examples in one embodiment regarding securing useridentification are provided in the section entitled “USERIDENTIFICATION.”

User Identification

In one embodiment, a portal (e.g., 143 shown in FIG. 14) has a mobileenrollment web page that can be accessed with an inbound query stringreceived from the mobile device of a user (e.g., 101 shown in FIG. 1)for enrollment in connection with a merchant aggregator (e.g., 221 shownin FIG. 14) (or other partner systems).

In one embodiment, the query string is configured to allow the portal(143) unambiguously verify that the request associated with the inboundquery string is originated from the specific partner (e.g., merchantaggregator (221)), and to prevent unauthorized use of the mobileenrollment web page that is designed for activities associated with therespective partner (e.g., the merchant aggregator (221)).

In one embodiment, the partner system (e.g., the merchant aggregator(221)) is configured to provide certain information about the user (101)using a query string via redirecting the point of interaction (107) ofthe user (101) to visit the portal (143) using the query string.Information provided by the partner system can be used to pre-fill somefields in a page provided by the portal (143), saving effort for theuser (101) in using the page (e.g., for enrolling in a program toreceive messages delivered in real time with the processing of thetransactions by the transaction handler (103)).

For example, the query string technique can be designed for use by auser (101) who is accessing the enrollment site from within thecorresponding site of the merchant aggregator (221) in one embodiment.Prior to redirecting the user (101) to the portal (143), the merchantaggregator (221) authenticates the user (101) for a session; themerchant aggregator (221) collects information about the user (101); andwhen the merchant aggregator (221) has the appropriate permission toshare the previously collected information with the portal (143), themerchant aggregator (221) provides the portal (143) with the informationabout the user (101) previously collected by the merchant aggregator(221).

In one embodiment, the portal (143) requires that the mobile enrollmentweb page(s) be accessed from a mobile cellular phone. When the inboundweb page request (e.g., an HTTP request) visiting the mobile enrollmentweb page is from an individual cellular phone, the incoming request willshow many different originating IP addresses, due to the proxy coverageof cell phones by the cell carrier. Further, it is possible to generatethe web page request via other devices in the web at large. As a result,it is difficult to know whether the access to the mobile enrollment webpage designed for the partner system (e.g., the merchant aggregator(221)) is actually coming from one of the customers of the partnersystem (in which case access should be granted), or coming from anunauthorized source (in which case access should be denied).

In one embodiment, a digital signature (296) technique is used to checkthe inbound query string to the mobile enrollment page to verifythat: 1) the inbound request is from a specific customer of the partnersystem (e.g., the merchant aggregator (221)); 2) the customer is knownto the partner system (e.g., the merchant aggregator (221)) beforehand,and 3) that the inbound request is NOT from an unauthorized source.

In one embodiment, prior to issuing an HTTPS request directed to themobile enrollment page with the query string attached, the partnersystem (e.g., the merchant aggregator (221)) is configured to obtain anEnrollee User ID (EUID) and used as one of the fields in the querystring. The query string is created via combining multiple fields anddigitally signing the combined fields using a cryptographic hashfunction (e.g., SHA-256 designed by the National Security Agency (NSA)and published in 2001 by the National Institute of Standards andTechnology (NIST) as a U.S. Federal Information Processing Standard) anda shared passphrase known to the partner system (e.g., the merchantaggregator (221)) and the portal (143). The digital signature (296) iscombined with the ID used in the partner system (e.g., the merchantaggregator (221)) to uniquely identify the user (101) among users of thepartner system. The combined ID and digital signature (296) are used inthe inbound query string for the mobile enrollment page. When the portal(103) receives the inbound query string embedded in the web request tovisit the mobile enrollment page, the portal (103) is configured torecreate the digital signature (296) (e.g., using the same cryptographichash function and passphrase) and check if the recreated digitalsignature (296) matches the digital signature (296) received in thequery string. If the digital signature (296)s match with each other, thequery string is accepted; otherwise, the query string is rejected. Thus,the Enrollee User ID (EUID) (including the ID used in the partner system(e.g., the merchant aggregator (221)) to uniquely identify the user(101) among users of the partner system and the digital signature (296)for the plurality of fields) provides strong validation of:

i. the data in the query string have been originated from the partnersystem,

ii. the data in the query string has not been tampered with or modified,

iii. the specific user (101) in question is a bona fide customer of thepartner system (e.g., the merchant aggregator (221)).

In one embodiment, the Enrollee User ID (EUID) is created via apassphrase that is a secret shared between the merchant aggregator (221)and the portal (143). For example, the operator of the portal (143) mayprovide the passphrase via an out of band channel to the operation ofthe merchant aggregator (221) prior to initiating of the generation ofEUIDs. In one embodiment, the passphrase is kept secure and availableonly to the server software installed on the merchant aggregator (221)and the portal (143), which are configured to generate and verify thedigital signature (296)s. From time to time a new passphrase isgenerated and delivered to replace the old passphrase. In oneembodiment, the passphrase is a one-time code (e.g., used only once forthe generation of one EUID).

In one embodiment, a mobile application installed on the mobile phone ofthe user (101) is configured to request the EUID from the serversoftware running on the merchant aggregator (221), as part of preparingthe query string used to pre-populate the enrollment form. The requestfor the EUID transmitted from the mobile application to the merchantaggregator (221) includes the user ID (223), assigned by the merchantaggregator (221) and used by the mobile application to uniquely identifythe user (101) of the mobile application among customers of the merchantaggregator (221). In one embodiment, the request for the EUID furtheridentifies the phone number of the mobile phone of the user (101) onwhich the mobile application resides. Alternatively or in combination,the request for the EUID can include any other fields from the querystring that are to be securely verified by the portal (143). In oneembodiment, EUID constructed in real time in response to the request toaccount for changes in the source data attributes that can occur at anytime.

In one embodiment, in response to the request for the EUID from themobile application, the merchant aggregator (221) is configured (e.g.,via cryptographic software and/or hardware) to combine the user ID(223), the mobile phone number, and the passphrase in a predeterminedorder and format into a single contiguous string, then calculate a oneway hash of string using a cryptographic hash function (e.g., SHA-256).In one embodiment, the result of the one way hash is a 256-bit (32 byte)integer value that is converted to a string and appended to the user ID(223) and returned to the mobile application as the EUID beingrequested.

In one embodiment, the mobile application is configured to insert thereceived EUID into the query string at the appropriate locationspecified by the query string interface for the EUID. In one embodiment,the query string includes the mobile phone number per the query stringspecification, and is sent to the portal (143) as part of the inboundhttps request to the mobile enrollment form.

In one embodiment, after the portal (143) receives the inbound querystring containing the EUID, the portal (143) is configured toreconstruct the EUID by obtaining the user ID (223) and mobile phonenumber from the query string, combine the user ID (223) with the mobilephone number, the mobile phone number obtained from the query stringwith the shared secret that was transmitted out-of-band in relation withthe query string according to the same predetermined order and formatinto a single contiguous string, then calculate a one way hash of stringusing the same cryptographic hash function (e.g., SHA-256) as used bythe merchant aggregator (221). The resulting digital signature (296) iscompared with the corresponding digital signature (296) obtained fromthe EUID received via the query string. If the two digital signature(296)s match with each other, the EUID and the query string is accepted.

In one embodiment, the EUID is generated on the merchant aggregator(221), not on the mobile application running on the mobile device of auser, which device is not fully under the control of the merchantaggregator (221).

In one embodiment, the portal (143) includes a passphrase generator thatprovides the passphrase to the merchant aggregator (221) using a securecommunication channel separate from the channel used to receive thequery string from the mobile application.

In one embodiment, the passphrase is stored in a secure database of theportal (143) and a secure server environment on the merchant aggregator(221) and available only to authorized personnel.

FIG. 14 shows a system to securely identify a user according to oneembodiment. In FIG. 14, the merchant aggregator (221) is configured tocombine a set of data, including the user ID (223), a user device ID(251) and a secret (253) in a predetermined format to form a string andapply a cryptographic one-way hash function to generate the hash (255).The cryptographic hash function has a property to make it a verydifficult task to modify the set of data without changing the resultinghash (255).

In FIG. 14, the user ID (223) and the hash (225) is combined in apredetermined format to generate the user identifier (257). The user ID(223) and the hash (225) can be individually identified from the useridentifier (257). The user identifier (257) is provided from themerchant aggregator (221) to the user device (261) that is identified bythe user device ID (251) to access the portal (143).

For example, in one embodiment, the user device (261) is a mobile phone;and the user device ID (251) is a mobile phone number of the mobilephone.

In FIG. 14, the portal (143) is configured to use the user identifier(257) to verify that the request is originated from the merchantaggregator (221). After receiving the user identifier (257) from theuser device (261) in the request, the portal (143) extracts the user ID(223) and the hash (255) embedded in the user identifier (257),determine other corresponding information such as the user device ID(251), the secret (253), etc. and combine the corresponding set of datain the same predetermined format as used by the merchant aggregator(221) to form a string and apply a cryptographic one-way hash functionto re-generate the hash (255) based on received information (e.g., userID (223), user device ID (251)) and the secret (253). If the regeneratedhash (255) is the same as the hash (255) provided in the user identifier(257), the request and/or the user identifier (257) is accepted;otherwise, the request and/or the user identifier (257) is rejected.

In FIG. 14, a third party (e.g., the user device (261), any unauthorizedpersons) does not have the secret (253) that is shared by the merchantaggregator (221) and the portal (143) via out-of-band communication.Thus, a third party is able to provide the hash (255) that can berecreated by the portal (143); and therefore, a match hash (255)recreated by the portal (143) indicates that the user identifier (257)is from the merchant aggregator (221).

Further, in FIG. 14, the use of the cryptographic one-way hash functionprevents any tempering with the user ID (223). If the data, such as theuser ID (223), user device ID (251) and/or other data fields used tocreate the hash (255) is modified upon arrival at the portal (143), thehash (255) recreated with the modified data would not match the hash(255) provided in the user identifier (257); and without the secret(253), the third party cannot modify the hash (255) in the useridentifier (257) to cause the portal (143) to recreate the same hash(255) from the modified data.

Thus, the system illustrated in FIG. 14 allows a secure redirecting of auser from the merchant aggregator (221) to the portal (143).

In one embodiment, the user device ID (251) is transmitted from themerchant aggregator (221) to the portal (143) via the request redirectedto the portal (143). The data used to create the hash may include otherinformation to be passed from the merchant aggregator (221) to theportal (143), such as the email, residence and/or mailing address of theuser (101).

In one embodiment, the user device ID (251) is not directly transmittedfrom the merchant aggregator (221) to the portal (143). For example, thequery string may not include the phone number of the mobile phone; andthe portal (143) is configured to determine the phone number based onthe origin of the request. Thus, when the request is not received fromthe mobile phone at the corresponding phone number, the regenerated hash(255) does not the hash (255) extracted from the user identifier (257).

FIG. 15 shows a method to securely identify a user according to oneembodiment. In FIG. 15, a computing apparatus is configured to receive(271) a request from a user device (261) identifying a user identifier(257); extract (273), from the user identifier (257), a useridentification (223) and a digital signature (296) (e.g., hash (255)),the user identification (223) assigned by a partner system (e.g.,merchant aggregator (221)) to uniquely identify a user (101) of the userdevice (261) among customers of the partner system (e.g., merchantaggregator (221)); generate (275) a dataset (e.g., 223, 251, . . . )from information received from the user device (251), the dataset (e.g.,223, 251, . . . ) including the user identification (223) assigned bythe partner system (e.g., merchant aggregator (221)) and anidentification (251) of the user device (261); verify (277) the dataset(e.g., 223, 251, . . . ) against the digital signature (296) (e.g., hash(255)); and reject (279) the request if the dataset (e.g., 223, 251, . .. ) fails verification against the digital signature (296) (e.g., hash(255)).

In one embodiment, the computing apparatus has at least onemicroprocessor and a memory storing instructions configured to instructthe at least one microprocessor to perform operations. The computingapparatus/system includes at least one of: the portal (143), themerchant aggregator (221), the user device (261), the server A (283),the server B (285), the data warehouse (149), the media controller(115), the message broker (201), and the transaction handler (103), eachof which can be implemented using one or more data processing systems asillustrated in FIG. 7. In one embodiment, the user device (261) includesa point of interaction (107) as discussed in the section entitled “POINTOF INTERACTION”.

Some details about the system in one embodiment are provided in thesections entitled “SYSTEM,” “CENTRALIZED DATA WAREHOUSE” and “HARDWARE.”

Transaction Data Based Services

In one embodiment, transaction data, such as records of transactionsmade via credit accounts, debit accounts, prepaid accounts, bankaccounts, stored value accounts and the like, is processed to provideinformation for various services, such as reporting, benchmarking,advertising, content or offer selection, customization, personalization,prioritization, etc. In one embodiment, users are required to enroll ina service program and provide consent to allow the system to use relatedtransaction data and/or other data for the related services. The systemis configured to provide the services while protecting the privacy ofthe users in accordance with the enrollment agreement and user consent.

In one embodiment, an advertising network is provided based on atransaction handler to present personalized or targetedadvertisements/offers on behalf of advertisers. A computing apparatusof, or associated with, the transaction handler uses the transactiondata and/or other data, such as account data, merchant data, searchdata, social networking data, web data, etc., to develop intelligenceinformation about individual customers, or certain types or groups ofcustomers. The intelligence information can be used to select, identify,generate, adjust, prioritize, and/or personalize advertisements/offersto the customers. In one embodiment, the transaction handler is furtherautomated to process the advertisement fees charged to the advertisers,using the accounts of the advertisers, in response to the advertisingactivities.

In one embodiment, the computing apparatus is to generate triggerrecords for a transaction handler to identify authorization requeststhat satisfy the conditions specified in the trigger records, identifycommunication references of the users associated with the identifiedauthorization requests, and use the communication references to targetreal-time messages at the users in parallel with the transaction handlerproviding responses to the respective authorization requests. Details inone embodiment regarding the generation and delivery of messages inreal-time with the processing of transactions are provided in thesection entitled “REAL-TIME MESSAGES.”

In one embodiment, the computing apparatus is configured to providetransaction information about transactions between enrolled merchantsand enrolled account holders to a merchant aggregator, which enrolls themerchants and account holders for enhanced communications with merchantsand account holders. The transaction information is provided in realtime or concurrently with the processing of the respective transactionrequests at the transaction handler. Details and examples in oneembodiment regarding the communication via the merchant aggregator areprovided in the section entitled “MERCHANT AGGREGATOR.”

In one embodiment, the computing apparatus correlates transactions withactivities that occurred outside the context of the transaction, such asonline advertisements presented to the customers that at least in partcause offline transactions. The correlation data can be used todemonstrate the success of the advertisements, and/or to improveintelligence information about how individual customers and/or varioustypes or groups of customers respond to the advertisements.

In one embodiment, the computing apparatus correlates, or providesinformation to facilitate the correlation of, transactions with onlineactivities of the customers, such as searching, web browsing, socialnetworking and consuming advertisements, with other activities, such aswatching television programs, and/or with events, such as meetings,announcements, natural disasters, accidents, news announcements, etc.

In one embodiment, the correlation results are used in predictive modelsto predict transactions and/or spending patterns based on activities orevents, to predict activities or events based on transactions orspending patterns, to provide alerts or reports, etc.

In one embodiment, a single entity operating the transaction handlerperforms various operations in the services provided based on thetransaction data. For example, in the presentation of the personalizedor targeted advertisements, the single entity may perform the operationssuch as generating the intelligence information, selecting relevantintelligence information for a given audience, selecting, identifying,adjusting, prioritizing, personalizing and/or generating advertisementsbased on selected relevant intelligence information, and facilitatingthe delivery of personalized or targeted advertisements, etc.Alternatively, the entity operating the transaction handler cooperateswith one or more other entities by providing information to theseentities to allow these entities to perform at least some of theoperations for presentation of the personalized or targetedadvertisements.

System

FIG. 1 illustrates a system to provide services based on transactiondata according to one embodiment. In FIG. 1, the system includes atransaction terminal (105) to initiate financial transactions for a user(101), a transaction handler (103) to generate transaction data (109)from processing the financial transactions of the user (101) (and thefinancial transactions of other users), a profile generator (121) togenerate transaction profiles (127) based on the transaction data (109)to provide information/intelligence about user preferences and spendingpatterns, a point of interaction (107) to provide information and/oroffers to the user (101), a user tracker (113) to generate user data(125) to identify the user (101) using the point of interaction (107), aprofile selector (129) to select a profile (131) specific to the user(101) identified by the user data (125), and an advertisement selector(133) to select, identify, generate, adjust, prioritize and/orpersonalize advertisements for presentation to the user (101) on thepoint of interaction (107) via a media controller (115).

In one embodiment, the system further includes a correlator (117) tocorrelate user specific advertisement data (119) with transactionsresulting from the user specific advertisement data (119). Thecorrelation results (123) can be used by the profile generator (121) toimprove the transaction profiles (127).

In one embodiment, the transaction profiles (127) are generated from thetransaction data (109) in a way as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3. Forexample, in FIG. 3, an aggregated spending profile (341) is generatedvia the factor analysis (327) and cluster analysis (329) to summarize(335) the spending patterns/behaviors reflected in the transactionrecords (301).

In one embodiment, a data warehouse (149) as illustrated in FIG. 4 iscoupled with the transaction handler (103) to store the transaction data(109) and other data, such as account data (111), transaction profiles(127) and correlation results (123). In FIG. 4, a portal (143) iscoupled with the data warehouse (149) to provide data or informationderived from the transaction data (109), in response to a query requestfrom a third party or as an alert or notification message.

In FIG. 4, the transaction handler (103) is coupled between an issuerprocessor (145) in control of a consumer account (146) and an acquirerprocessor (147) in control of a merchant account (148). An accountidentification device (141) is configured to carry the accountinformation (142) that identifies the consumer account (146) with theissuer processor (145) and provide the account information (142) to thetransaction terminal (105) of a merchant to initiate a transactionbetween the user (101) and the merchant.

FIGS. 5 and 6 illustrate examples of transaction terminals (105) andaccount identification devices (141). FIG. 7 illustrates the structureof a data processing system that can be used to implement, with more orfewer elements, at least some of the components in the system, such asthe point of interaction (107), the transaction handler (103), theportal (143), the data warehouse (149), the account identificationdevice (141), the transaction terminal (105), the user tracker (113),the profile generator (121), the profile selector (129), theadvertisement selector (133), the media controller (115), etc. Someembodiments use more or fewer components than those illustrated in FIGS.1 and 4-7, as further discussed in the section entitled “VARIATIONS.”

In one embodiment, the transaction data (109) relates to financialtransactions processed by the transaction handler (103); and the accountdata (111) relates to information about the account holders involved inthe transactions. Further data, such as merchant data that relates tothe location, business, products and/or services of the merchants thatreceive payments from account holders for their purchases, can be usedin the generation of the transaction profiles (127, 341).

In one embodiment, the financial transactions are made via an accountidentification device (141), such as financial transaction cards (e.g.,credit cards, debit cards, banking cards, etc.); the financialtransaction cards may be embodied in various devices, such as plasticcards, chips, radio frequency identification (RFID) devices, mobilephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc.; and the financialtransaction cards may be represented by account identifiers (e.g.,account numbers or aliases). In one embodiment, the financialtransactions are made via directly using the account information (142),without physically presenting the account identification device (141).

Further features, modifications and details are provided in varioussections of this description.

Centralized Data Warehouse

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103) maintains a centralizeddata warehouse (149) organized around the transaction data (109). Forexample, the centralized data warehouse (149) may include, and/orsupport the determination of, spending band distribution, transactioncount and amount, merchant categories, merchant by state, cardholdersegmentation by velocity scores, and spending within merchant target,competitive set and cross-section.

In one embodiment, the centralized data warehouse (149) providescentralized management but allows decentralized execution. For example,a third party strategic marketing analyst, statistician, marketer,promoter, business leader, etc., may access the centralized datawarehouse (149) to analyze customer and shopper data, to providefollow-up analyses of customer contributions, to develop propensitymodels for increased conversion of marketing campaigns, to developsegmentation models for marketing, etc. The centralized data warehouse(149) can be used to manage advertisement campaigns and analyze responseprofitability.

In one embodiment, the centralized data warehouse (149) includesmerchant data (e.g., data about sellers), customer/business data (e.g.,data about buyers), and transaction records (301) between sellers andbuyers over time. The centralized data warehouse (149) can be used tosupport corporate sales forecasting, fraud analysis reporting,sales/customer relationship management (CRM) business intelligence,credit risk prediction and analysis, advanced authorization reporting,merchant benchmarking, business intelligence for small business,rewards, etc.

In one embodiment, the transaction data (109) is combined with externaldata, such as surveys, benchmarks, search engine statistics,demographics, competition information, emails, etc., to flag key eventsand data values, to set customer, merchant, data or event triggers, andto drive new transactions and new customer contacts.

Transaction Profile

In FIG. 1, the profile generator (121) generates transaction profiles(127) based on the transaction data (109), the account data (111),and/or other data, such as non-transactional data, wish lists, merchantprovided information, address information, information from socialnetwork websites, information from credit bureaus, information fromsearch engines, and other examples discussed in U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/614,603, filed Nov. 9, 2009, published as U.S. Pat. App.Pub. No. 2011/0054981, and entitled “Analyzing Local Non-TransactionalData with Transactional Data in Predictive Models,” the disclosure ofwhich is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

In one embodiment, the transaction profiles (127) provide intelligenceinformation on the behavior, pattern, preference, propensity, tendency,frequency, trend, and budget of the user (101) in making purchases. Inone embodiment, the transaction profiles (127) include information aboutwhat the user (101) owns, such as points, miles, or other rewardscurrency, available credit, and received offers, such as coupons loadedinto the accounts of the user (101). In one embodiment, the transactionprofiles (127) include information based on past offer/coupon redemptionpatterns. In one embodiment, the transaction profiles (127) includeinformation on shopping patterns in retail stores as well as online,including frequency of shopping, amount spent in each shopping trip,distance of merchant location (retail) from the address of the accountholder(s), etc.

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103) provides at least partof the intelligence for the prioritization, generation, selection,customization and/or adjustment of an advertisement for delivery withina transaction process involving the transaction handler (103). Forexample, the advertisement may be presented to a customer in response tothe customer making a payment via the transaction handler (103).

Some of the transaction profiles (127) are specific to the user (101),or to an account of the user (101), or to a group of users of which theuser (101) is a member, such as a household, family, company,neighborhood, city, or group identified by certain characteristicsrelated to online activities, offline purchase activities, merchantpropensity, etc.

In one embodiment, the profile generator (121) generates and updates thetransaction profiles (127) in batch mode periodically. In otherembodiments, the profile generator (121) generates the transactionprofiles (127) in real-time, or just in time, in response to a requestreceived in the portal (143) for such profiles.

In one embodiment, the transaction profiles (127) include the values fora set of parameters. Computing the values of the parameters may involvecounting transactions that meet one or more criteria, and/or building astatistically-based model in which one or more calculated values ortransformed values are put into a statistical algorithm that weightseach value to optimize its collective predictiveness for variouspredetermined purposes.

Further details and examples about the transaction profiles (127) in oneembodiment are provided in the section entitled “AGGREGATED SPENDINGPROFILE.”

Non-Transactional Data

In one embodiment, the transaction data (109) is analyzed in connectionwith non-transactional data to generate transaction profiles (127)and/or to make predictive models.

In one embodiment, transactions are correlated with non-transactionalevents, such as news, conferences, shows, announcements, market changes,natural disasters, etc. to establish cause and effect relationships topredict future transactions or spending patterns. For example,non-transactional data may include the geographic location of a newsevent, the date of an event from an events calendar, the name of aperformer for an upcoming concert, etc. The non-transactional data canbe obtained from various sources, such as newspapers, websites, blogs,social networking sites, etc.

In one embodiment, when the cause and effect relationships between thetransactions and non-transactional events are known (e.g., based onprior research results, domain knowledge, expertise), the relationshipscan be used in predictive models to predict future transactions orspending patterns, based on events that occurred recently or arehappening in real-time.

In one embodiment, the non-transactional data relates to events thathappened in a geographical area local to the user (101) that performedthe respective transactions. In one embodiment, a geographical area islocal to the user (101) when the distance from the user (101) tolocations in the geographical area is within a convenient range fordaily or regular travel, such as 20, 50 or 100 miles from an address ofthe user (101), or within the same city or zip code area of an addressof the user (101). Examples of analyses of local non-transactional datain connection with transaction data (109) in one embodiment are providedin U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/614,603, filed Nov. 9, 2009,published as U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2011/0054981, and entitled“Analyzing Local Non-Transactional Data with Transactional Data inPredictive Models,” the disclosure of which is hereby incorporatedherein by reference.

In one embodiment, the non-transactional data is not limited to localnon-transactional data. For example, national non-transactional data canalso be used.

In one embodiment, the transaction records (301) are analyzed infrequency domain to identify periodic features in spending events. Theperiodic features in the past transaction records (301) can be used topredict the probability of a time window in which a similar transactionwill occur. For example, the analysis of the transaction data (109) canbe used to predict when a next transaction having the periodic featurewill occur, with which merchant, the probability of a repeatedtransaction with a certain amount, the probability of exception, theopportunity to provide an advertisement or offer such as a coupon, etc.In one embodiment, the periodic features are detected through countingthe number of occurrences of pairs of transactions that occurred withina set of predetermined time intervals and separating the transactionpairs based on the time intervals. Some examples and techniques for theprediction of future transactions based on the detection of periodicfeatures in one embodiment are provided in U.S. patent application Ser.No. 12/773,770, filed May 4, 2010, published as 2010/0280882, andentitled “Frequency-Based Transaction Prediction and Processing,” thedisclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

Techniques and details of predictive modeling in one embodiment areprovided in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,119,103, 6,018,723, 6,658,393, 6,598,030,and 7,227,950, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated hereinby reference.

In one embodiment, offers are based on the point-of-service to offereedistance to allow the user (101) to obtain in-person services. In oneembodiment, the offers are selected based on transaction history andshopping patterns in the transaction data (109) and/or the distancebetween the user (101) and the merchant. In one embodiment, offers areprovided in response to a request from the user (101), or in response toa detection of the location of the user (101). Examples and details ofat least one embodiment are provided in U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/767,218, filed Jun. 22, 2007, assigned Pub. No. 2008/0319843, andentitled “Supply of Requested Offer Based on Point-of Service to OffereeDistance,” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/755,575, filed May 30,2007, assigned Pub. No. 2008/0300973, and entitled “Supply of RequestedOffer Based on Offeree Transaction History,” U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/855,042, filed Sep. 13, 2007, assigned Pub. No.2009/0076896, and entitled “Merchant Supplied Offer to a Consumer withina Predetermined Distance,” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/855,069,filed Sep. 13, 2007, assigned Pub. No. 2009/0076925, and entitled“Offeree Requested Offer Based on Point-of Service to Offeree Distance,”and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/428,302, filed Apr. 22, 2009,assigned Pub. No. 2010/0274627, and entitled “Receiving an AnnouncementTriggered by Location Data,” the disclosures of which applications arehereby incorporated herein by reference.

Targeting Advertisement

In FIG. 1, an advertisement selector (133) prioritizes, generates,selects, adjusts, and/or customizes the available advertisement data(135) to provide user specific advertisement data (119) based at leastin part on the user specific profile (131). The advertisement selector(133) uses the user specific profile (131) as a filter and/or a set ofcriteria to generate, identify, select and/or prioritize advertisementdata for the user (101). A media controller (115) delivers the userspecific advertisement data (119) to the point of interaction (107) forpresentation to the user (101) as the targeted and/or personalizedadvertisement.

In one embodiment, the user data (125) includes the characterization ofthe context at the point of interaction (107). Thus, the use of the userspecific profile (131), selected using the user data (125), includes theconsideration of the context at the point of interaction (107) inselecting the user specific advertisement data (119).

In one embodiment, in selecting the user specific advertisement data(119), the advertisement selector (133) uses not only the user specificprofile (131), but also information regarding the context at the pointof interaction (107). For example, in one embodiment, the user data(125) includes information regarding the context at the point ofinteraction (107); and the advertisement selector (133) explicitly usesthe context information in the generation or selection of the userspecific advertisement data (119).

In one embodiment, the advertisement selector (133) may query forspecific information regarding the user (101) before providing the userspecific advertisement data (119). The queries may be communicated tothe operator of the transaction handler (103) and, in particular, to thetransaction handler (103) or the profile generator (121). For example,the queries from the advertisement selector (133) may be transmitted andreceived in accordance with an application programming interface orother query interface of the transaction handler (103), the profilegenerator (121) or the portal (143) of the transaction handler (103).

In one embodiment, the queries communicated from the advertisementselector (133) may request intelligence information regarding the user(101) at any level of specificity (e.g., segment level, individuallevel). For example, the queries may include a request for a certainfield or type of information in a cardholder's aggregated spendingprofile (341). As another example, the queries may include a request forthe spending level of the user (101) in a certain merchant category overa prior time period (e.g., six months).

In one embodiment, the advertisement selector (133) is operated by anentity that is separate from the entity that operates the transactionhandler (103). For example, the advertisement selector (133) may beoperated by a search engine, a publisher, an advertiser, an ad network,or an online merchant. The user specific profile (131) is provided tothe advertisement selector (133) to assist in the customization of theuser specific advertisement data (119).

In one embodiment, advertising is targeted based on shopping patterns ina merchant category (e.g., as represented by a Merchant Category Code(MCC)) that has high correlation of spending propensity with othermerchant categories (e.g., other MCCs). For example, in the context of afirst MCC for a targeted audience, a profile identifying second MCCsthat have high correlation of spending propensity with the first MCC canbe used to select advertisements for the targeted audience.

In one embodiment, the aggregated spending profile (341) is used toprovide intelligence information about the spending patterns,preferences, and/or trends of the user (101). For example, a predictivemodel can be established based on the aggregated spending profile (341)to estimate the needs of the user (101). For example, the factor values(344) and/or the cluster ID (343) in the aggregated spending profile(341) can be used to determine the spending preferences of the user(101). For example, the channel distribution (345) in the aggregatedspending profile (341) can be used to provide a customized offertargeted for a particular channel, based on the spending patterns of theuser (101).

In one embodiment, mobile advertisements, such as offers and coupons,are generated and disseminated based on aspects of prior purchases, suchas timing, location, and nature of the purchases, etc. In oneembodiment, the size of the benefit of the offer or coupon is based onpurchase volume or spending amount of the prior purchase and/or thesubsequent purchase that may qualify for the redemption of the offer.Further details and examples of one embodiment are provided in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/960,162, filed Dec. 19, 2007, assignedPub. No. 2008/0201226, and entitled “Mobile Coupon Method and PortableConsumer Device for Utilizing same,” the disclosure of which is herebyincorporated herein by reference.

In one embodiment, conditional rewards are provided to the user (101);and the transaction handler (103) monitors the transactions of the user(101) to identify redeemable rewards that have satisfied the respectiveconditions. In one embodiment, the conditional rewards are selectedbased on transaction data (109). Further details and examples of oneembodiment are provided in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/862,487,filed Sep. 27, 2007 and entitled “Consumer Specific ConditionalRewards,” the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein byreference. The techniques to detect the satisfied conditions ofconditional rewards can also be used to detect the transactions thatsatisfy the conditions specified to locate the transactions that resultfrom online activities, such as online advertisements, searches, etc.,to correlate the transactions with the respective online activities.

Further details about targeted offer delivery in one embodiment areprovided in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/185,332, filed Aug. 4,2008, assigned Pub. No. 2010/0030644, and entitled “Targeted Advertisingby Payment Processor History of Cashless Acquired Merchant Transactionon Issued Consumer Account,” and in U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/849,793, filed Aug. 3, 2010, assigned Pub. No. 2011/0035280, andentitled “Systems and Methods for Targeted Advertisement Delivery,” thedisclosures of which applications are hereby incorporated herein byreference.

Loyalty Program

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103) uses the account data(111) to store information for third party loyalty programs. Thetransaction handler (103) processes payment transactions made viafinancial transaction cards, such as credit cards, debit cards, bankingcards, etc.; and the financial transaction cards can be used as loyaltycards for the respective third party loyalty programs. Since the thirdparty loyalty programs are hosted on the transaction handler (103), theconsumers do not have to carry multiple, separate loyalty cards (e.g.,one for each merchant that offers a loyalty program); and the merchantsdo not have to incur a large setup and investment fee to establish theloyalty program. The loyalty programs hosted on the transaction handler(103) can provide flexible awards for consumers, retailers,manufacturers, issuers, and other types of business entities involved inthe loyalty programs. The integration of the loyalty programs into theaccounts of the customers on the transaction handler (103) allows newofferings, such as merchant cross-offerings or bundling of loyaltyofferings.

In one embodiment, an entity operating the transaction handler (103)hosts loyalty programs for third parties using the account data (111) ofthe users (e.g., 101). A third party, such as a merchant, retailer,manufacturer, issuer or other entity that is interested in promotingcertain activities and/or behaviors, may offer loyalty rewards onexisting accounts of consumers. The incentives delivered by the loyaltyprograms can drive behavior changes without the hassle of loyalty cardcreation. In one embodiment, the loyalty programs hosted via theaccounts of the users (e.g., 101) of the transaction handler (103) allowthe consumers to carry fewer cards and may provide more data to themerchants than traditional loyalty programs.

The loyalty programs integrated with the accounts of the users (e.g.,101) of the transaction handler (103) can provide tools to enable nimbleprograms that are better aligned for driving changes in consumerbehaviors across transaction channels (e.g., online, offline, via mobiledevices). The loyalty programs can be ongoing programs that accumulatebenefits for customers (e.g., points, miles, cash back), and/or programsthat provide one time benefits or limited time benefits (e.g., rewards,discounts, incentives).

FIG. 8 shows the structure of account data (111) for providing loyaltyprograms according to one embodiment. In FIG. 8, data related to a thirdparty loyalty program may include an identifier of the loyalty benefitofferor (183) that is linked to a set of loyalty program rules (185) andthe loyalty record (187) for the loyalty program activities of theaccount identifier (181). In one embodiment, at least part of the datarelated to the third party loyalty program is stored under the accountidentifier (181) of the user (101), such as the loyalty record (187).

FIG. 8 illustrates the data related to one third party loyalty programof a loyalty benefit offeror (183). In one embodiment, the accountidentifier (181) may be linked to multiple loyalty benefit offerors(e.g., 183), corresponding to different third party loyalty programs.

In one embodiment, a third party loyalty program of the loyalty benefitofferor (183) provides the user (101), identified by the accountidentifier (181), with benefits, such as discounts, rewards, incentives,cash back, gifts, coupons, and/or privileges.

In one embodiment, the association between the account identifier (181)and the loyalty benefit offeror (183) in the account data (111)indicates that the user (101) having the account identifier (181) is amember of the loyalty program. Thus, the user (101) may use the accountidentifier (181) to access privileges afforded to the members of theloyalty program, such as rights to access a member only area, facility,store, product or service, discounts extended only to members, oropportunities to participate in certain events, buy certain items, orreceive certain services reserved for members.

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103) is configured toprovide offers from merchants to the user (101) via the payment system,making accessing and redeeming the offers convenient for the user (101).The offers may be triggered by and/or tailored to a previoustransaction, and may be valid only for a limited period of time startingfrom the date of the previous transaction. If the transaction handler(103) determines that a subsequent transaction processed by thetransaction handler (103) meets the conditions for the redemption of anoffer, the transaction handler (103) may credit the consumer account(146) for the redemption of the offer and/or provide a notificationmessage to the user (101). Further details and examples of oneembodiment are provided in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/566,350,filed Sep. 24, 2009, assigned Pub. No. 2010/0114686, and entitled“Real-Time Statement Credits and Notifications,” the disclosure of whichis hereby incorporated herein by reference.

Details on loyalty programs in one embodiment are provided in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/896,632, filed Oct. 1, 2010, assignedPub. No. 2011/0087530, and entitled “Systems and Methods to ProvideLoyalty Programs,” the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated hereinby reference.

SKU

In one embodiment, merchants generate stock-keeping unit (SKU) or otherspecific information that identifies the particular goods and servicespurchased by the user (101) or customer. The SKU information may beprovided to the operator of the transaction handler (103) that processedthe purchases. The operator of the transaction handler (103) may storethe SKU information as part of transaction data (109), and reflect theSKU information for a particular transaction in a transaction profile(127 or 131) associated with the person involved in the transaction.

When a user (101) shops at a traditional retail store or browses awebsite of an online merchant, an SKU-level profile associatedspecifically with the user (101) may be provided to select anadvertisement appropriately targeted to the user (101) (e.g., via mobilephones, POS terminals, web browsers, etc.). The SKU-level profile forthe user (101) may include an identification of the goods and serviceshistorically purchased by the user (101). In addition, the SKU-levelprofile for the user (101) may identify goods and services that the user(101) may purchase in the future. The identification may be based onhistorical purchases reflected in SKU-level profiles of otherindividuals or groups that are determined to be similar to the user(101). Accordingly, the return on investment for advertisers andmerchants can be greatly improved.

In one embodiment, the user specific profile (131) is an aggregatedspending profile (341) that is generated using the SKU-levelinformation. For example, in one embodiment, the factor values (344)correspond to factor definitions (331) that are generated based onaggregating spending in different categories of products and/orservices. A typical merchant offers products and/or services in manydifferent categories.

Details on SKU-level profile in one embodiment are provided in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/899,144, filed Oct. 6, 2010, published asU.S. Pat. App. Pub. No. 2011/0093335 and entitled “Systems and Methodsfor Advertising Services Based on an SKU-Level Profile,” the disclosureof which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

Real-Time Messages

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103) is configured tocooperate with the media controller (115) to facilitate real-timeinteraction with the user (101) when the payment of the user (101) isbeing processed by the transaction handler (103). The real-timeinteraction provides the opportunity to impact the user experienceduring the purchase (e.g., at the time of card swipe), throughdelivering messages in real-time to a point of interaction (107), suchas a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant, a portable computer,etc. The real-time message can be delivered via short message service(SMS), email, instant messaging, or other communications protocols.

In one embodiment, the real-time message is provided without requiringmodifications to existing systems used by the merchants and/or issuers.

FIG. 9 shows a system to provide real-time messages according to oneembodiment. In FIG. 9, the transaction handler (103) (or a separatecomputing system coupled with the transaction handler (103)) is todetect the occurrence of certain transactions of interest during theprocessing of the authorization requests received from the transactionterminal (105); a message broker (201) is to identify a relevant messagefor the user (101) associated with the corresponding authorizationrequest; and the media controller (115) is to provide the message to theuser (101) at the point of interaction (107) via a communication channelseparate from the channel used by the transaction handler (103) torespond to the corresponding authorization request submitted from thetransaction terminal (105).

In one embodiment, the media controller (115) is to provide the messageto the point of interaction (107) in parallel with the transactionhandler (103) providing the response to the authorization request.

In one embodiment, the point of interaction (107) receives the messagefrom the media controller (115) in real-time with the transactionhandler (103) processing the authorization request. In one embodiment,the message is to arrive at the point of interaction (107) in thecontext of the response provided from the transaction handler (103) tothe transaction terminal (105). For example, the message is to arrive atthe point of interaction (107) substantially at the same time as theresponse to the authorization request arrives at the transactionterminal (105), or with a delay not long enough to cause the user (101)to have the impression that the message is in response to an actionother than the payment transaction. For example, the message is toarrive at the point of interaction (107) prior to the user (101)completing the transaction and leaving the transaction terminal (105),or prior to the user (101) leaving the retail location of the merchantoperating the transaction terminal (105).

In FIG. 9, the system includes a portal (143) to provide services tomerchants and/or the user (101).

For example, in one embodiment, the portal (143) allows the user (101)to register the communication reference (205) in association with theaccount data (111), such as the account information (142) of theconsumer account (146); and the media controller (115) is to use thecommunication reference (205) to deliver the message to the point ofinteraction (107). Examples of the communication reference (205) includea mobile phone number, an email address, a user identifier of an instantmessaging system, an IP address, etc.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) allows merchants and/or otherparties to define rules (203) to provide offers (186) as real-timeresponses to authorization requests; and based on the offer rules (203),the message broker (201) is to generate, or instruct the mediacontroller (115) to generate, the real-time message to provide theoffers (186) to the user (101). For example, the offer (186) may includea discount, incentive, reward, rebate, gift, or other benefit, which canbe redeemed upon the satisfaction of certain conditions required by theoffer rules (203). In one embodiment, based on the offer rules (203) themessage broker (201) configures a message by selecting the appropriatemessage template from (an) existing message(s) template(s), and insertsany relevant data (e.g., the communication reference (205)) into theselected template, then passes the configured message to the mediacontroller (115), which delivers the message to the point of interaction(107). In one embodiment, the message broker (201) (or a subsystem) isused to manage message templates along with the rules for selecting theappropriate message template from among several potential choices.

In one embodiment, the offer rules (203) include offer details,targeting rules, advertisement campaign details, profile mapping,creative mapping, qualification rules, award/notify/fulfillment rules,approvals, etc. Creative elements for offers include text, images,channels, approvals, etc.

In one embodiment, when the offer rules (203) are activated by themerchant or advertiser via the portal (143), the message broker (201) isto generate trigger records (207) for the transaction handler (103). Thetransaction handler (103) is to monitor the incoming authorizationrequests to identify requests that satisfy the conditions specified inthe trigger records (207) during the process of the authorizationrequests, and to provide the information about the identified requeststo the message broker (201) for the transmission of an appropriatereal-time message in accordance with the offer rules (203).

In one embodiment, the generation of the trigger records (207) for thetransaction handler (103) is in real-time with the merchant oradvertiser activating the offer rules (203). Thus, the offer rules (203)can be activated and used for the detection of the new authorizationrequests in real-time, while the transaction handler (103) continues toprocess the incoming authorization requests.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) provides information about thespending behaviors reflected in the transaction data (109) to assist themerchants or advertisers to target offers or advertisements. Forexample, in one embodiment, the portal (143) allows merchants to targetthe offers (186) based on transaction profiles (127). For example, theoffer rules (203) are partially based on the values in a transactionprofile (127), such as an aggregated spending profile (341). In oneembodiment, the offer rules (203) are partially based on the informationabout the last purchase of the user (101) from the merchant operatingthe transaction terminal (105) (or another merchant), and/or theinformation about the location of the user (101), such as the locationdetermined based on the location of the transaction terminal (105)and/or the location of the merchant operating the transaction terminal(105).

In one embodiment, the portal (143) provides transaction basedstatistics, such as merchant benchmarking statistics, industry/marketsegmentation, etc., to assist merchants and advertisers to identifycustomers.

Thus, the real-time messages can be used to influence customer behaviorswhile the customers are in the purchase mode.

In one embodiment, the benefit of the offers (186) can be redeemed viathe transaction handler (103). The redemption of the offer (186) may ormay not require the purchase details (e.g., SKU level purchase details).Details in one embodiment about redeeming offers (186) via thetransaction handler (103) are provided in U.S. patent application Ser.No. 13/113,710, filed May 23, 2011 and entitled “Systems and Methods forRedemption of Offers,” the disclosure of which is hereby incorporatedherein by reference.

In one embodiment, when the authorization request for a purchaseindicates that the purchase qualifies the offer (186) for redemption ifthe purchase corresponding to the authorization request is completed,the message broker (201) is to construct a message and use the mediacontroller (115) to deliver the message in real-time with the processingof the authorization request to the point of interaction (107). Themessage informs the user (101) that when the purchase is completed, thetransaction handler (103) and/or the issuer processor (145) is toprovide the benefit of the offer (186) to the user (101) via statementcredit or some other settlement value, for example points in aregistered loyalty program, or credit at the point of sale using adigital coupon delivered to the purchaser via mobile phone.

In one embodiment, the settlement of the payment transactioncorresponding to the authorization request does not occur in real-timewith the processing of the authorization request. For example, themerchant may submit the complete purchases for settlement at the end ofthe day, or in accordance with a predetermined schedule. The settlementmay occur one or more days after the processing of the authorizationrequest.

In one embodiment, when transactions are settled, the settledtransactions are matched to the authorization requests to identifyoffers (186) that are redeemable in view of the settlement. When theoffer (186) is confirmed to be redeemable based on a record ofsuccessful settlement, the message broker (201) is to use the mediacontroller (115) to provide a message to the point of interaction (107)of the user (101), such as the mobile phone of the user (101). In oneembodiment, the message is to inform the user (101) of the benefit to beprovided as statement credits and/or to provide additional offers. Inone embodiment, the message to confirm the statement credits istransmitted in real-time with the completion of the transactionsettlement.

In one embodiment, the message broker (201) is to determine the identityof the merchant based on the information included in the authorizationrequest transmitted from the transaction terminal (105) to thetransaction handler (103). In one embodiment, the identity of themerchant is normalized to allow the application of the offer rules (203)that are merchant specific.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) is to provide data insight tomerchants and/or advertisers. For example, the portal (143) can providethe transaction profile (127) of the user (101), audience segmentationinformation, etc.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) is to allow the merchants and/oradvertisers to define and manage offers (186) for their creation,fulfillment and/or delivery in messages.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) allows the merchants and/oradvertisers to test, run and/or monitor the offers (186) for theircreation, fulfillment and/or delivery in messages.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) is to provide reports and analyticsregarding the offers (186).

In one embodiment, the portal (143) provides operation facilities, suchas onboarding, contact management, certification, file management,workflow assistance, etc. to assist the merchants and/or advertisers tocomplete the tasks related to the offers (186).

In one embodiment, the portal (143) allows the user (101) to opt in oropt out of the real-time message delivery service.

In one embodiment, an advertiser or merchant can select an offerfulfillment method from a list of options, such as statement credits,points, gift cards, e-certificates, third party fulfillment, etc.

In one embodiment, the merchant or advertiser is to use the “off therack” transaction profiles (127) available in the data warehouse (149).In one embodiment, the merchant or advertiser can further editparameters to customize the generation of the transaction profiles (127)and/or develop custom transaction profiles from scratch using the portal(143).

In one embodiment, the portal (143) provides a visualization tool toallow the user to see clusters of data based on GeoCodes, proximity,transaction volumes, spending patterns, zip codes, customers, stores,etc.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) allows the merchant or advertiser todefine cells for targeting the customers in the cells based ondate/time, profile attributes, map to offer/channel/creative, conditiontesting, etc.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) allows the merchant or advertiser tomonitor the system health, such as the condition of servers, filesreceived or sent, errors, status, etc., the throughput by date or range,by program, by campaign, or by global view, and aspects of currentprograms/offers/campaigns, such as offer details, package audit reports,etc. In one embodiment, reporting includes analytics and metrics, suchas lift, conversion, category differentials (e.g., spending patterns,transaction volumes, peer groups), and reporting by program, campaign,cell, GeoCode, proximity, ad-hoc, auditing, etc.

FIG. 10 shows a method to provide real-time messages according to oneembodiment. In FIG. 10, a computing apparatus is to generate (211) atrigger record (207) for a transaction handler (103) to identify anauthorization request that satisfies the conditions specified in thetrigger record (207), receive (213) from the transaction handler (103)information about the authorization request in real-time with thetransaction handler (103) providing a response to the authorizationrequest to a transaction terminal (105), identify (215) a communicationreference (205) of a user (101) associated with the authorizationrequest, determine (217) a message for the user (101) responsive to theauthorization request, and provide (219) the message to the user (101)at a point of interaction (107) via the communication reference (205),in parallel with the response from the transaction handler (103) to thetransaction terminal (105).

In one embodiment, the computing apparatus includes at least one of: atransaction handler (103), a message broker (201), a media controller(115), a portal (143) and a data warehouse (149).

Merchant Aggregator

In one embodiment, real-time information about transactions iscommunicated to a remote computing device, such as a merchantaggregator, which has a plurality of merchants as clients. The computingdevice is connected to the portal (143) of the transaction handler (103)a communication network (e.g., Internet, a wide area network, or adedicate network) to receive the real-time information and provideservices to the merchants and their customers.

In one embodiment, the remote computing device, such as the merchantaggregator, is configured to provide offers (186) to customers (e.g.,user (101)) on behalf of the merchants, service loyalty programs onbehalf of the merchants, and/or provide rewards to customers (e.g., user(101)) for their interaction with the merchants, etc. The real-timeinformation about the transactions between the merchants and thecustomers allows the remote computing device to provide new services andimprove existing services.

In one embodiment, the computing device remotely connected to the portal(143), such as a merchant aggregator, is configured to enroll merchantsand/or customers (e.g., user (101)) to provide services based on thereal-time information about transactions between the merchants and thecustomers (e.g., user (101)). However, the identifiers used by theportal (143) to identify the enrolled merchants are generally differentfrom merchant identifies used by the transaction handler (103) inprocessing transactions initiated using the transaction terminals (e.g.,105) of the merchants. Thus, the identifiers used by the portal (143) toidentify the enrolled merchants may not be sufficient to identify thetransactions between the enrolled merchants and the enrolled customers.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) of the transaction handler (103) isconfigured to match the identities of the merchants as known to theremote computing device, such as the merchant aggregator, with theidentities of the merchants as known to the transaction handler (103),to facilitate the monitoring of transactions of the merchants and togenerate the real-time information about the transactions between therespective merchants and enrolled customers (e.g., user (101)).

In one embodiment, the portal (143) is configured to link a merchantidentifier of a merchant as known to the remote computing device to amerchant identifier of the merchant as known to the transaction handler(103) via a transaction made using a transaction terminal (105) of themerchant. Information about the transaction is communicated between theportal (143) and the remote computing device, in association with themerchant identifier of the merchant as known to the remote computingdevice, to identify the transaction from the transactions processed thetransaction handler (103) and thus link the merchant identifier of themerchant as known to the remote computing device, to the merchantidentifier used in the identified transaction.

Alternatively or in combination, the portal (143) is configured to linkthe merchant identifier of the merchant as known to the remote computingdevice to the merchant identifier of the merchant as known to thetransaction handler (103) based at least in part on marching attributesof the merchant, such as name, address, business category, etc.

For example, when a merchant enrolls or registers with the remotecomputing device to receive the services of the remote computing device,the remote computing device is configured to collect information aboutthe merchant, such as the business name of the merchant, the streetaddress of the merchant, the business category of the merchant, etc.Such information about the merchant can be matched with the respectivemerchant information in the data warehouse stored for the merchants asknown to the transaction handler (103). Different data fields, such asname, address, business field, may provide partial match for a givenmerchant identifier of the merchant as known to the remote computingdevice; and a rule engine is configured in one embodiment to rank thedegree of match and select one or more top ranked candidate merchantidentifiers, as used in transactions processed by the transactionhandler (103).

In one embodiment, a transaction is initiated on a transaction terminal(105) of a merchant as part of the process to register or enroll themerchant for the services of the remote computing device. Thetransaction is identified as part of information about the merchant, inassociation with the merchant identifier of the merchant as known to theremote computing device. The merchant identifier used in the transactionis thus linked to the merchant identifier of the merchant as known tothe remote computing device. Thus, transactions of the merchant can bemonitored using the merchant identifier used in the transaction formedas part of the process to register or enroll the merchant.

In one embodiment, the transaction formed as part of the process toregister or enroll the merchant is performed in a predetermined account.The information about the transaction is provided to the portal (143) toallow the portal (143) to identify a transaction record for thetransaction, based on attributes such as the date and/or time of thetransaction, the transaction amount, an authorization code for thetransaction, and a message (e.g., a pseudo-promotional code) transmittedto the transaction handler (103) in an authorization request for thetransaction, etc. The portal (143) is configured to identify thetransaction record (e.g., 301) of the transaction based on matching theattributes as identified in the information transmitted from the remotecomputing device to the portal (143).

In one embodiment, the portal (143) is configured to communicate withthe remote computing device to determine one or more parameters of thetransaction performed on the transaction terminal (105) of a merchant toenroll or register the merchant. Examples of the parameters that can beconfigured to uniquely identify merchants to be enrolled includetransaction amounts, pseudo-promotional code, etc. After one or moreparameters are determined to uniquely identify the merchant among a setof merchants currently in the process of being enrolled or registered,the transaction terminal (105) is used to initiate the transactionaccording to the one or more parameters; and the transaction handler(103) is configured to monitor transactions being processed to detectthe transaction initiate the transaction according to the one or moreparameters. In response to the detection of authorization requestinitiated on the transaction terminal (105) of the merchant for thetransaction made according to the one or more parameters, the merchantidentifier used in the authorization request is extracted and linked tothe merchant as registered and/or enrolled.

In one embodiment, enrollment communication between the portal (143) andthe remote computing device includes not only the identificationinformation about the merchant, but also the identification informationof the transaction terminal (105) used to initiate the transactiondesigned to register the merchant and/or the transaction terminal (105).In one embodiment, information about the transaction terminal (105)includes an identifier of the transaction terminal (105) (e.g., a serialnumber), a location of the transaction terminal (105) (e.g., a streetaddress of a retail store in which the transaction terminal (105) isdeployed, a GPS position of the transaction terminal (105), adescription of the location of the transaction terminal (105) within aretail store in which a plurality of transaction terminals (e.g., 105)of the merchant are located).

In one embodiment, multiple transactions are performed to individuallyidentify the transaction terminals of the merchant. Thus, thetransaction handler (103) can monitor the transactions made usingspecific transaction terminals of the merchant and/or provideinformation about the transaction terminals on which the monitoredtransactions are initiated.

In one embodiment, when an authorization request for a transaction madeusing the one or more parameters assigned to uniquely identify themerchant and/or the transaction terminal (105) of the merchant isdetected, the transaction handler (103) is configured to communicatewith the portal (143) to provide a response to indicate the detection ofthe transaction. For example, in one embodiment, the transaction handler(103) is configured to provide an indication via the authorizationresponse to indicate the recognition of the merchant and/or thetransaction terminal (105). For example, in one embodiment, the portal(143) is configured to provide a message to the remote computing deviceto indicate the successful detection of transaction associated with themerchant and/or the transaction terminal (105) and completion of theregistration or enrollment process.

FIG. 11 shows a system configured to communicate via a merchantaggregator according to one embodiment. In FIG. 11, the merchantaggregator (221) is configured to communicate with merchants (227) toenroll the merchants (227) for the services of the system.

In one embodiment, when the merchant aggregator (221) enrolls a newmerchant, the merchant aggregator provides merchant information (225) tothe portal (143) of the transaction handler (103) to request the portal(143) and/or the transaction handler (103) to monitor the transactionsof the respective merchant (227).

In one embodiment, the merchant information (225) used by the merchantaggregator (221) to identify the merchant (227) may include the businessdata (e.g., corporation data, corporation name, consumer-facing name,“doing business as” names, names of affiliates and/or subsidiaries),addresses and store locations, etc. of the merchant (227). In oneembodiment, the merchant information (225) further includes informationabout the acquirer representing the merchant, merchant category, and/orother relevant information that is helpful in identifying the merchantin the transaction processing network having the transaction handler(103) interconnecting acquirer processors (e.g., 147) operated byacquirers representing respective merchants and issuer processors (e.g.,145) operated by issuers representing respective users (101) of consumeraccounts (146).

For example, in one embodiment, the merchant aggregator (221) providesthe merchant information (225) via a spreadsheet identifying a list ofmerchants (227). In the spreadsheet, each merchant (227) is identifiedvia the corporate name of the merchant (227) and the consumer-facingname of the merchant. For less well known merchants (e.g., smallbusinesses), the spreadsheet further identifies the name of theacquiring bank that represents the merchant (227) in processingtransactions to be processed via the transaction handler (103). In oneembodiment, the spreadsheet further includes the desired starting dateof monitoring the transactions of the merchants (227) identified in thespreadsheet and the expected ending date of monitoring the transactionsof the merchant (227) for the merchant aggregator (221).

In one embodiment, the portal (143) is configured to provide a userinterface that allows the merchant aggregator (221) to specify data forthe creation of the trigger records (207) associated with an offercampaign. For example, the user interface in one embodiment allows themerchant aggregator (221) to create an offer campaign associated withone of the merchants (227) identified in the spreadsheet provided toidentify the merchants (227). To support the offer campaign, the userinterface is configured to allow the merchant aggregator (221) tospecify rules to monitor the transactions of the respect merchant (227).For example, the rules may identify a date to start testing of themonitoring of the transactions of the merchant (227), a date to send themonitoring of the transactions of the merchant (227) for the purpose ofthe offer campaign, a request for a notification of transactionsprovided in real time as the processing of the authorization requests ofthe respective transactions of the merchant (227), and/or a request fora notification of transactions provided in real time as the processingof the settlement requests of the respective transactions of themerchant (227). In one embodiment, the user interface further allows themerchant aggregator (221) to specify other requirements to selecttransactions to be monitored, such as requirements based on transactionamount, transaction time, characteristics of the user (101) purchasingfrom the merchant (227), etc. In one embodiment, the user interfacefurther allows the merchant aggregator (221) to specify messages to betransmitted, in a way as illustrated in FIG. 9, to the respective user(101) transacting with the merchant (227), in response to thetransactions detected according to the offer rules.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) is configured to correctly identifytransactions associated with the enrolled merchant (227) based on themerchant information (225), and calculate the location of thetransactions to enable location based services associated with the offer(186) of the merchant (227).

In one embodiment, based on the merchant information (225), the portal(143) is configured to identify one or more merchant IDs (305) that areconfigured to be used in authorization requests for transactions of themerchant (227) identified by the merchant information (225). Theidentified merchant ID (305) is used to generate the trigger records(207) for monitoring the transactions of the merchant (227) identifiedby the merchant information (225) provided by the merchant aggregator(221).

In one embodiment, the account holders (e.g., user (101)) are requiredto enroll with the system to provide the consent for the mediacontroller (115) to send the transaction information of the accountholders (e.g., user (101)) to the merchant aggregator (221), and for themedia controller (115) and/or the merchant aggregator (221) to sendmessages to the point of interaction (107) of the user (101) based onthe transaction information.

In FIG. 11, after user enrollment, the user (101) of the consumeraccount (146) is identified to be associated with a user ID (223) usedby the merchant aggregator (221) to identify the user (101). The user(101) may further provide the communication reference (205) to themerchant aggregator (221) to receive offers (186), rewards,notifications, alerts, etc. The transaction handler (103) is configuredto use the trigger records (207) containing the account number (302) ofthe user (101) to detect the transactions of the user (101) (e.g., thetransactions between the user (101) between one or more the enrolledmerchants (e.g., 227)).

To associate the account number (302) with the user ID (223) in oneembodiment, the account number (302) of the consumer account (146) ofthe user (101) is identified to the portal (143) during the userenrollment and stored in the data warehouse (149) in association withthe user ID (223).

For example, during the user enrollment process, the point ofinteraction (107) (e.g., a web browser, a mobile phone) of the user(101) interacting with the merchant aggregator (221) is redirected inone embodiment from the merchant aggregator (221) to the portal (143)with a reference to the user ID (223); and in response, the portal (143)provides a user interface to the point of interaction (107) of the user(101) to specify the account number (302). After the account number(302) specified by the user (101) is validated and/or authenticated(e.g., via security code, person identification number, securityquestions, security devices, etc.), the account number (302) isassociated with the user ID (223) in the data warehouse (149) of thetransaction handler (103).

In one embodiment, more than one account number (302) of the consumeraccounts (146) of the user (101) can be associated with the single userID (223) used by the merchant aggregator (221) to represent the user(101).

In one embodiment, the user ID (223) is assigned to the user (101) bythe merchant aggregator (221) during the enrollment process.Alternatively, the portal (143) may generate and assign the user ID(223) for the user during the enrollment process and provide the user ID(223) to the merchant aggregator (221) to complete the enrollment of theuser (101).

In one embodiment, during the enrollment process, the user (101)provides the account number (302) to the merchant aggregator (221),which indicates the association between the account number (302) and theuser ID (223) to the portal (143) of the transaction handler (103); andthe user ID (223) is subsequently used to identify the user (101) ismessages to the merchant aggregator (221). Alternatively, the accountnumber (302) may be used directly to identify the user (101), when thereal-time message from the media controller (115) to the merchantaggregator (221) is transmitted over a secure communication channel.

In one embodiment, the trigger record (207) is generated based at leastin part on the account number (302) and the merchant ID (305) to monitorthe transactions between the user (101) and the merchant (227). When theauthorization request from the transaction terminal (105) of themerchant (227) identifies the account number (302) and the merchant ID(305), as required by the trigger record (207) (and satisfies otherrequirements of the trigger record (207), such as requirements relatedto the date and time of the transaction, the amount of the transaction,etc.), the transaction handler (103) causes the message broker (201) togenerate a message and transmit the message to the merchant aggregator(221), in real time with the processing of the transaction, to informthe merchant aggregator (221) of the transaction.

In one embodiment, the data warehouse (149) stores the merchant location(229) for the merchant ID (305) associated with the transaction terminal(105).

In one embodiment, in response to the authorization request from thetransaction terminal (105), the merchant location (229) of thetransaction terminal (105) is determined and included in the real-timemessage generated by the message broker (201) and provided to themerchant aggregator (221) in a generic, machine-readable format (e.g.,XML). Based on the information provided in the real-time message, themerchant aggregator (221) may use the communication reference (205) tocommunicate offers (186), rewards, messages, notifications, alerts, etc.to the point of interaction (107) of the user (101), such as viamessages to a mobile phone identified by the communication reference(205) and/or a mobile application running on the mobile phone of theuser (101).

In FIG. 11, the merchant aggregator (221) is configured to communicatewith the point of interaction (107) of the user (101) in response to thereal-time message from the media controller (115). Alternatively or incombination, the data warehouse (149) may store the communicationreference (205), which is used by the media controller (115) to provideone or more separate real-time messages related to location-based offers(186) to the point of interaction (107) of the user (101) without goingthrough the merchant aggregator (221).

In one embodiment, a merchant (227) may have a number of subsidiarieswith different names and locations. In response to the merchantinformation (225), merchant data related to merchant accounts (148) aresearched to identify a set of possible matches to the merchantinformation (225), which may be further communicated to the merchantaggregator (221) for confirmation. For example, in one embodiment, eachmatched merchant ID is augmented with the respective address of thetransaction terminals operated by the respective merchant entity; andthe merchant (227) may further confirm the enrollment of the respectivemerchant entity. In one embodiment, the names and addresses of themerchant information (225) are matched with the names and addresses ofthe merchant data for merchant accounts (148) to identify the merchantentity that is enrolled via the merchant information (225).

In one embodiment, a plurality of merchant IDs (305) may match themerchant information (225) specified by the merchant aggregator (221);and one or more merchant locations corresponding to the locations of thetransaction terminals (105) may associate with a merchant ID (305) inthe data warehouse (149). When the trigger record (207) matches atransaction, the merchant location (229) corresponding to thetransaction terminal (105) from which the authorization request isreceived is used for the location-based service provided by the merchantaggregator (221) and/or the message broker (201).

FIG. 12 shows a system to enroll a merchant according to one embodiment.In FIG. 12, a transaction made using a predetermined account number(302) is used to correlate the merchant information (225) (e.g., amerchant identifier (235) of the merchant as known to the merchantaggregator (221)) with the merchant ID (305) used in the transactionmessages processed by the transaction handler (103).

In FIG. 12, when the merchant (227) enrolls with the merchant aggregator(221), the merchant enrollment data (231), including the merchantinformation (225), is generated to identify the names and locations ofthe enrolled merchant (227). The merchant aggregator (221) uses themerchant identifier (235) to represent the enrolled merchant (227).

In one embodiment, to correlate the merchant identifier (235) with amerchant ID (305) associated with the merchant account (148), thetransaction terminal (105) at the enrolled location of the merchant(227) is used to initiate a transaction using a predetermined accountnumber (302). After the transaction is initiated, the acquirer processor(147) connected to the transaction terminal (105) provides theauthorization request to the transaction handler (103), which stores thetransaction record (237) that includes the predetermined account number(302), the merchant ID (305), the date (303) of the transaction, theamount (304) of the transaction, the authorization code provided by thetransaction handler (103), through the acquirer processor (147), to thetransaction terminal (105) for the transaction, etc.

In one embodiment, the merchant aggregator (221) stores a separatetransaction record (233) including certain information about thetransaction as identified by the enrolling merchant (227), such as thepredetermined account number (302), the date (303) (or the time periodin which transaction is performed), the amount (304), and theauthorization code received by the transaction terminal (105), throughthe acquirer processor (147) and the transaction handler (103), for thetransaction, etc.

In FIG. 12, the portal (143) is configured to match the transactionrecords (233 and 237) to link the merchant ID (305) to the merchantidentifier (235), using one or more sets of corresponding fields of thetransaction records (233 and 237).

For example, during the enrollment period, the portal (143) isconfigured to retrieve transactions records (237) for the predeterminedaccount number (302) from the data warehouse (149); and the merchantaggregator (221) is configured to provide its transaction record (233)with the merchant identifier (235) to the portal (143). The portal (143)is configured to match the transaction records (233 and 237) based onthe account number (302), the transaction date (303), and/or thetransaction amount (304). When a match is detected, the merchant ID(305) (and the identifier of the transaction terminal (105)) from thetransaction record (237) generated by the transaction handler (103) islinked to the merchant identifier (235) associated with the transactionrecord (233) stored by the merchant aggregator (221).

Using the system of FIG. 12, the merchant (227) can selectively enrollcertain transaction terminals (105) operated under certain names and/orat certain locations. Thus, the merchant (227) may enroll a portion ofthe transaction terminals (105) under the control of the merchant (227)but not another portion of the transaction terminals (105) under thecontrol of the merchant (227). Different transaction terminals e.g.,105) of a merchant may have different merchant ID (305) and/ortransaction terminal IDs. Through transactions initiated using thedifferent transaction terminals of the merchant, the merchant identifier(235) representing an enrolled merchant is linked to the differentmerchant ID (305) and/or transaction terminal IDs as used inauthorization request for the transactions made using respectivetransaction terminals of the corresponding enrolled merchant.

In one embodiment, the transaction record (233) further includes thelocation information of the transaction terminal (105), which can beused for location based services. For example, in reporting thetransaction initiated via using the predetermined account number (302)at the transaction terminal (105), the merchant (227) may specify thelocation of the transaction terminal (105) via a mobile device, a mobileapplication, a map application, or a street address. Thus, the locationof the transaction terminal (105) is associated with the merchant ID(305) and/or the transaction terminal (105).

In one embodiment, the data warehouse (149) stores location informationof transaction terminal (105) (e.g., as reported by the acquirerprocessor (147)) and provides the location information to the merchantaggregator (221) after the merchant ID (305) is linked to the merchantidentifier (235) via the transaction record (237) for the transactioninitiated on the transaction terminal (105).

In one embodiment, during the enrollment process, the merchantaggregator (221) instructs the merchant (227) to perform the transactionaccording to the data stored in the transaction record (223) andprovides the transaction record (233) to the portal (143). In response,the portal (143) generates a trigger record (207) to detect thetransaction that is subsequently initiated by the merchant at thetransaction terminal (105). In one embodiment, the trigger record (207)is configured to cause the portal (143) to link the merchant ID (305)from the transaction record (237) of the identified transaction with themerchant identifier (235) associated with the transaction record (233)used to generate the trigger record (207).

In one embodiment, during the enrollment process, the merchantaggregator (221) is configured to request the portal (143) to generate aset of transaction parameters to temporarily identify a transactionterminal (105) of a merchant (227). The portal (143) is configured totransmit the parameters to the merchant aggregator as part of thetransaction record (233) for initiation of the transaction. Examples ofthe parameters include the transaction amount, a pseudo-promotional codeto be transmitted in an authorization request initiated in thetransaction terminal (105). After the parameters are transmitted to themerchant aggregator (221), the transaction handler (103) is configuredto monitor transactions to detect the transaction made, in thepredetermined account, using the parameters provided to the merchantaggregator (221). Thus, as soon as the authorization request for theexpected transaction reaches the transaction handler (103), the portal(143) can identify the merchant ID (305) and/or the transaction terminalID of the respective transaction terminal (105) from the receivedauthorization request, for association with the transaction terminal(105) of the merchant (227) to be enrolled.

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103) is configured tomonitor and detect a plurality of transactions initiated to enroll aplurality of different merchants and/or different transaction terminalsof the enrolled merchants. To separately identify the merchants and/orthe transaction terminals, the portal (143) and/or the merchantaggregator (221) are configured to select the transaction parameters(e.g., transaction amounts) as temporary unique identifiers of themerchants and/or transaction terminals. A data warehouse (e.g., 149) isconfigured to store data associating the temporary unique identifierswith the merchants and/or transaction terminals. After a transaction isperformed and detected, the temporary association between thecorresponding transaction parameters with the merchants and/ortransaction terminals can be removed and/or reused for theidentification of further merchants and/or transaction terminals.

In one embodiment, the transaction parameters configured as temporaryidentifiers of the enrolled merchants and/or transaction terminals areused to create trigger records to detect the subsequent authorizationrequests initiated from the corresponding transaction terminals of theenrolled merchants.

FIG. 13 shows a method to provide real-time notifications oftransactions according to one embodiment. In FIG. 13, a computingapparatus is configured to receive (241) merchant information (225)identifying merchants (227) enrolled with a merchant aggregator (221),determine (243) merchant IDs (305) configured to be used in transactionauthorization requests from the respective merchants (227), identify(245) account numbers (302) associated with user IDs (223) used by themerchant aggregator (221) to identify respective account users (101),monitor (247) transactions processed by the transactions handler (103)to detect transactions between merchants (227) as identified by themerchant IDs (305) and the users (101) as identified by the accountnumbers (302), and transmit (249) to the merchant aggregator (221)messages reporting the detected transactions.

In one embodiment, the computing apparatus is configured to: receivefirst data including a first merchant identifier (235) of a merchant(227); determine, using the first data, a second merchant identifier(305) different from the first merchant identifier and configured toidentify the merchant in authorization requests for transactions of themerchant (227) submitted to a transaction handler (103); monitor, usingthe second merchant identifier (205), transactions of the merchant (227)to detect a subset of the transactions; and in response to detecting atransaction in the subset, transmit a message in real time as thetransaction handler (103) processes the transaction, where the messagecontains information about the transaction and identifies the merchantusing the first merchant identifier (235).

In one embodiment, the computing apparatus is configured to store seconddata associating the first merchant identifier (235) and the secondmerchant identifier (225), and determine, using the second data, thefirst merchant identifier (235) for the transaction, after the detectingof the transaction in the subset.

In one embodiment, the message containing information about the detectedtransaction in the subset is communicated via a communication channelseparate from a communication channel used to process authorization ofthe transaction.

In one embodiment, the message is communicated to a computing device(e.g., merchant aggregator (221)) not involved in authorization of thetransaction; and where the computing device (e.g., merchant aggregator(221)) receiving the message is configured to identify the merchantusing the first merchant identifier (235), after the merchant (227) isenrolled in a program hosted on the computing device.

In one embodiment, the receiving of the first data identifying themerchant includes: receiving a request associated with the merchant; andcomputing a transaction amount configured to uniquely identify themerchant among a plurality of merchants in transactions to be made in apredetermined account; and providing the transaction amount as aresponse to the request. In one embodiment, the request includes thefirst merchant identifier of the merchant.

In one embodiment, after the providing of the transaction amount as theresponse to the request, the computing apparatus is configured to:monitor transactions in the predetermined account to detect a firsttransaction in the predetermined account by matching a transactionamount of the first transaction with the transaction amount provided asa response to the request; and determine the second merchant identifierbased on the first transaction, where the first transaction is made inthe predetermined account in accordance with the transaction amount thatis provided as a response to the request.

In one embodiment, the computing apparatus is configured to store atrigger record for the predetermined account to monitor transactions inthe predetermined account in real time as authorization requests fortransactions in the predetermined account are processed by thetransaction handler.

In one embodiment, the computing apparatus is configured to store thirddata identifying transaction amounts that have been assigned torepresent different merchant identifiers including the first merchantidentifier, where each of the transaction amounts uniquely identifies arespective one of the different merchant identifiers of the plurality ofmerchants; and after the detection of the first transaction, thecomputing apparatus removes from the third data association between thefirst merchant identifier and the transaction amount that is provided asa response to the request.

In one embodiment, the computing apparatus is configured to enroll aplurality of account holders to detect the transactions in the subsetbased at least in part on account numbers of the account holders.

In one embodiment, the determining of the second merchant identifierincludes: identifying a transaction record of the first transactionbased on matching data contained in the transaction record with theinformation about the first transaction provided in the first data(e.g., a date of the first transaction, a time of the first transaction,a transaction amount of the first transaction, a location of themerchant); and determining the second merchant identifier based on thetransaction record.

In one embodiment, the computing apparatus having at least one processorand memory storing instructions configured to instruct the at least oneprocessor to perform operations. The computing apparatus includes: aportal (143) configured to communicate with a remote computing device(e.g., merchant aggregator (221)) over a communication network toreceive first data including a first merchant identifier (235) of themerchant (227); and a transaction handler (103) configured to use asecond merchant identifier (305) to identify the merchant inauthorization requests for transactions of the merchant (227) submittedfrom the transaction terminal (105) of the merchant to the transactionhandler (103) via the acquirer processor (147) associated with themerchant account (148) of the merchant (227), where the portal (143) iscoupled with the transaction handler (103) to determine, using the firstdata, the second merchant identifier (305) different from the firstmerchant identifier (235). The computing apparatus further includes adata warehouse (149) configured to store transaction data (109)recording transactions processed by the transaction handler (103) andstore second data associating the first merchant identifier (305) andthe second merchant identifier (235). The transaction handler (103) isconfigured via trigger records (207) to monitor, using the secondmerchant identifier (305), transactions of the merchant (227) to detectthe subset of the transactions.

In one embodiment, the computing apparatus further includes a mediacontroller (115) configured to transmit, in response to detecting atransaction in the subset, a message to the remote computing device(e.g., merchant aggregator (221)) in real time as the transactionhandler (103) processes the transaction to inform the remote computingdevice (e.g., merchant aggregator (221)) of the transaction.

In one embodiment, the data warehouse (143) is configured to store thirddata associating a plurality of suggested transaction amounts with aplurality of different merchant identifiers respectively, where each ofthe plurality of suggested transaction amounts uniquely identifies acorresponding merchant identifier in the plurality of different merchantidentifiers.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) is configured to provide, to theremote computing device in response to the first data, a suggestedtransaction amount configured to uniquely identify the first merchantidentifier in the plurality of different merchant identifiers in thethird data. After the portal (143) provides the suggested transactionamount to the remote computing device, the transaction handler isconfigured to detect an authorization request for the first transaction,made according to the suggested transaction amount, in a predeterminedaccount using a transaction terminal of the merchant, where the secondmerchant identifier is determined from the authorization request.

In one embodiment, the computing apparatus/system includes at least oneof: the portal (143), the data warehouse (149), the transaction handler(103), the medial controller (115), and the message broker (201), eachof which may be implemented using a data processing system illustratedin FIG. 7, with more or less components.

Variations

Some embodiments use more or fewer components than those illustrated inFIGS. 1 and 4-7. For example, in one embodiment, the user specificprofile (131) is used by a search engine to prioritize search results.In one embodiment, the correlator (117) is to correlate transactionswith online activities, such as searching, web browsing, and socialnetworking, instead of or in addition to the user specific advertisementdata (119). In one embodiment, the correlator (117) is to correlatetransactions and/or spending patterns with news announcements, marketchanges, events, natural disasters, etc. In one embodiment, the data tobe correlated by the correlator with the transaction data (109) may notbe personalized via the user specific profile (131) and may not be userspecific. In one embodiment, multiple different devices are used at thepoint of interaction (107) for interaction with the user (101); and someof the devices may not be capable of receiving input from the user(101). In one embodiment, there are transaction terminals (105) toinitiate transactions for a plurality of users (101) with a plurality ofdifferent merchants. In one embodiment, the account information (142) isprovided to the transaction terminal (105) directly (e.g., via phone orInternet) without the use of the account identification device (141).

In one embodiment, at least some of the profile generator (121),correlator (117), profile selector (129), and advertisement selector(133) are controlled by the entity that operates the transaction handler(103). In another embodiment, at least some of the profile generator(121), correlator (117), profile selector (129), and advertisementselector (133) are not controlled by the entity that operates thetransaction handler (103).

For example, in one embodiment, the entity operating the transactionhandler (103) provides the intelligence (e.g., transaction profiles(127) or the user specific profile (131)) for the selection of theadvertisement; and a third party (e.g., a web search engine, apublisher, or a retailer) may present the advertisement in a contextoutside a transaction involving the transaction handler (103) before theadvertisement results in a purchase.

For example, in one embodiment, the customer may interact with the thirdparty at the point of interaction (107); and the entity controlling thetransaction handler (103) may allow the third party to query forintelligence information (e.g., transaction profiles (127), or the userspecific profile (131)) about the customer using the user data (125),thus informing the third party of the intelligence information fortargeting the advertisements, which can be more useful, effective andcompelling to the user (101). For example, the entity operating thetransaction handler (103) may provide the intelligence informationwithout generating, identifying or selecting advertisements; and thethird party receiving the intelligence information may identify, selectand/or present advertisements.

Through the use of the transaction data (109), account data (111),correlation results (123), the context at the point of interaction,and/or other data, relevant and compelling messages or advertisementscan be selected for the customer at the points of interaction (e.g.,107) for targeted advertising. The messages or advertisements are thusdelivered at the optimal time for influencing or reinforcing brandperceptions and revenue-generating behavior. The customers receive theadvertisements in the media channels that they like and/or use mostfrequently.

In one embodiment, the transaction data (109) includes transactionamounts, the identities of the payees (e.g., merchants), and the dateand time of the transactions. The identities of the payees can becorrelated to the businesses, services, products and/or locations of thepayees. For example, the transaction handler (103) maintains a databaseof merchant data, including the merchant locations, businesses,services, products, etc. Thus, the transaction data (109) can be used todetermine the purchase behavior, pattern, preference, tendency,frequency, trend, budget and/or propensity of the customers in relationto various types of businesses, services and/or products and in relationto time.

In one embodiment, the products and/or services purchased by the user(101) are also identified by the information transmitted from themerchants or service providers. Thus, the transaction data (109) mayinclude identification of the individual products and/or services, whichallows the profile generator (121) to generate transaction profiles(127) with fine granularity or resolution. In one embodiment, thegranularity or resolution may be at a level of distinct products andservices that can be purchased (e.g., stock-keeping unit (SKU) level),or category or type of products or services, or vendor of products orservices, etc.

The profile generator (121) may consolidate transaction data for aperson having multiple accounts to derive intelligence information aboutthe person to generate a profile for the person (e.g., transactionprofiles (127), or the user specific profile (131)).

The profile generator (121) may consolidate transaction data for afamily having multiple accounts held by family members to deriveintelligence information about the family to generate a profile for thefamily (e.g., transaction profiles (127), or the user specific profile(131)).

Similarly, the profile generator (121) may consolidate transaction datafor a group of persons, after the group is identified by certaincharacteristics, such as gender, income level, geographical location orregion, preference, characteristics of past purchases (e.g., merchantcategories, purchase types), cluster, propensity, demographics, socialnetworking characteristics (e.g., relationships, preferences, activitieson social networking websites), etc. The consolidated transaction datacan be used to derive intelligence information about the group togenerate a profile for the group (e.g., transaction profiles (127), orthe user specific profile (131)).

In one embodiment, the profile generator (121) may consolidatetransaction data according to the user data (125) to generate a profilespecific to the user data (125).

Since the transaction data (109) are records and history of pastpurchases, the profile generator (121) can derive intelligenceinformation about a customer using an account, a customer using multipleaccounts, a family, a company, or other groups of customers, about whatthe targeted audience is likely to purchase in the future, howfrequently, and their likely budgets for such future purchases.Intelligence information is useful in selecting the advertisements thatare most useful, effective and compelling to the customer, thusincreasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the advertising process.

In one embodiment, the transaction data (109) are enhanced withcorrelation results (123) correlating past advertisements and purchasesthat result at least in part from the advertisements. Thus, theintelligence information can be more accurate in assisting with theselection of the advertisements. The intelligence information may notonly indicate what the audience is likely to purchase, but also howlikely the audience is to be influenced by advertisements for certainpurchases, and the relative effectiveness of different forms ofadvertisements for the audience. Thus, the advertisement selector (133)can select the advertisements to best use the opportunity to communicatewith the audience. Further, the transaction data (109) can be enhancedvia other data elements, such as program enrollment, affinity programs,redemption of reward points (or other types of offers), onlineactivities, such as web searches and web browsing, social networkinginformation, etc., based on the account data (111) and/or other data,such as non-transactional data discussed in U.S. patent application Ser.No. 12/614,603, filed Nov. 9, 2009, assigned Pub. No. 2011/0054981, andentitled “Analyzing Local Non-Transactional Data with Transactional Datain Predictive Models,” the disclosure of which is hereby incorporatedherein by reference.

In one embodiment, the entity operating the transaction handler (103)provides the intelligence information in real-time as the request forthe intelligence information occurs. In other embodiments, the entityoperating the transaction handler (103) may provide the intelligenceinformation in batch mode. The intelligence information can be deliveredvia online communications (e.g., via an application programminginterface (API) on a website, or other information server), or viaphysical transportation of a computer readable media that stores thedata representing the intelligence information.

In one embodiment, the intelligence information is communicated tovarious entities in the system in a way similar to, and/or in parallelwith the information flow in the transaction system to move money. Thetransaction handler (103) routes the information in the same way itroutes the currency involved in the transactions.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) provides a user interface to allowthe user (101) to select items offered on different merchant websitesand store the selected items in a wish list for comparison, reviewing,purchasing, tracking, etc. The information collected via the wish listcan be used to improve the transaction profiles (127) and deriveintelligence on the needs of the user (101); and targeted advertisementscan be delivered to the user (101) via the wish list user interfaceprovided by the portal (143). Examples of user interface systems tomanage wish lists are provided in U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/683,802, filed Jan. 7, 2010, assigned Pub. No. 2010/0174623, andentitled “System and Method for Managing Items of Interest Selected fromOnline Merchants,” the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated hereinby reference.

Aggregated Spending Profile

In one embodiment, the characteristics of transaction patterns ofcustomers are profiled via clusters, factors, and/or categories ofpurchases. The transaction data (109) may include transaction records(301); and in one embodiment, an aggregated spending profile (341) isgenerated from the transaction records (301), in a way illustrated inFIG. 2, to summarize the spending behavior reflected in the transactionrecords (301).

When there is voluminous data representing the transaction records(301), the spending patterns reflected in the transaction records (301)can be difficult to recognize by an ordinary person.

In one embodiment, the voluminous transaction records (301) aresummarized (335) into aggregated spending profiles (e.g., 341) toconcisely present the statistical spending characteristics reflected inthe transaction records (301). The aggregated spending profile (341)uses values derived from statistical analysis to present the statisticalcharacteristics of transaction records (301) of an entity in a way easyto understand by an ordinary person.

In FIG. 2, the transaction records (301) are summarized (335) via factoranalysis (327) to condense the variables (e.g., 313, 315) and viacluster analysis (329) to segregate entities by spending patterns.

In FIG. 2, a set of variables (e.g., 311, 313, 315) are defined based onthe parameters recorded in the transaction records (301). The variables(e.g., 311, 313, and 315) are defined in a way to have meanings easilyunderstood by an ordinary person. For example, variables (311) measurethe aggregated spending in super categories; variables (313) measure thespending frequencies in various areas; and variables (315) measure thespending amounts in various areas. In one embodiment, each of the areasis identified by a merchant category (306) (e.g., as represented by amerchant category code (MCC), a North American Industry ClassificationSystem (NAICS) code, or a similarly standardized category code). Inother embodiments, an area may be identified by a product category, aSKU number, etc.

In one embodiment, a variable of a same category (e.g., frequency (313)or amount (315)) is defined to be aggregated over a set of mutuallyexclusive areas. A transaction is classified in only one of the mutuallyexclusive areas. For example, in one embodiment, the spending frequencyvariables (313) are defined for a set of mutually exclusive merchants ormerchant categories. Transactions falling with the same category areaggregated.

Examples of the spending frequency variables (313) and spending amountvariables (315) defined for various merchant categories (e.g., 306) inone embodiment are provided in U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/537,566, filed Aug. 7, 2009, published as U.S. Pat. App. Pub. No.2010/0306029 and entitled “Cardholder Clusters,” and in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/777,173, filed May 10, 2010, published as U.S.Pat. App. Pub. No. 2010/0306032 and entitled “Systems and Methods toSummarize Transaction Data,” the disclosures of which applications arehereby incorporated herein by reference.

In one embodiment, super categories (311) are defined to group thecategories (e.g., 306) used in transaction records (301). The supercategories (311) can be mutually exclusive. For example, each merchantcategory (306) is classified under only one super merchant category butnot any other super merchant categories. Since the generation of thelist of super categories typically requires deep domain knowledge aboutthe businesses of the merchants in various categories, super categories(311) are not used in one embodiment.

In one embodiment, the aggregation (317) includes the application of thedefinitions (309) for these variables (e.g., 311, 313, and 315) to thetransaction records (301) to generate the variable values (321). Thetransaction records (301) are aggregated to generate aggregatedmeasurements (e.g., variable values (321)) that are not specific to aparticular transaction, such as frequencies of purchases made withdifferent merchants or different groups of merchants, the amounts spentwith different merchants or different groups of merchants, and thenumber of unique purchases across different merchants or differentgroups of merchants, etc. The aggregation (317) can be performed for aparticular time period and for entities at various levels.

In one embodiment, the transaction records (301) are aggregatedaccording to a buying entity. The aggregation (317) can be performed ataccount level, person level, family level, company level, neighborhoodlevel, city level, region level, etc. to analyze the spending patternsacross various areas (e.g., sellers, products or services) for therespective aggregated buying entity. For example, the transactionrecords (301) for a particular account (e.g., presented by the accountnumber (302)) can be aggregated for an account level analysis. Toaggregate the transaction records (301) in account level, thetransactions with a specific merchant or merchants in a specificcategory are counted according to the variable definitions (309) for aparticular account to generate a frequency measure (e.g., 313) for theaccount relative to the specific merchant or merchant category; and thetransaction amounts (e.g., 304) with the specific merchant or thespecific category of merchants are summed for the particular account togenerate an average spending amount for the account relative to thespecific merchant or merchant category. For example, the transactionrecords (301) for a particular person having multiple accounts can beaggregated for a person level analysis, the transaction records (301)aggregated for a particular family for a family level analysis, and thetransaction records (301) for a particular business aggregated for abusiness level analysis.

The aggregation (317) can be performed for a predetermined time period,such as for the transactions occurring in the past month, in the pastthree months, in the past twelve months, etc.

In another embodiment, the transaction records (301) are aggregatedaccording to a selling entity. The spending patterns at the sellingentity across various buyers, products or services can be analyzed. Forexample, the transaction records (301) for a particular merchant havingtransactions with multiple accounts can be aggregated for a merchantlevel analysis. For example, the transaction records (301) for aparticular merchant group can be aggregated for a merchant group levelanalysis.

In one embodiment, the aggregation (317) is formed separately fordifferent types of transactions, such as transactions made online,offline, via phone, and/or “card-present” transactions vs.“card-not-present” transactions, which can be used to identify thespending pattern differences among different types of transactions.

In one embodiment, the variable values (e.g., 323, 324, . . . , 325)associated with an entity ID (322) are considered the random samples ofthe respective variables (e.g., 311, 313, 315), sampled for the instanceof an entity represented by the entity ID (322). Statistical analyses(e.g., factor analysis (327) and cluster analysis (329)) are performedto identify the patterns and correlations in the random samples.

For example, a cluster analysis (329) can identify a set of clusters andthus cluster definitions (333) (e.g., the locations of the centroids ofthe clusters). In one embodiment, each entity ID (322) is represented asa point in a mathematical space defined by the set of variables; and thevariable values (323, 324, . . . , 325) of the entity ID (322) determinethe coordinates of the point in the space and thus the location of thepoint in the space. Various points may be concentrated in variousregions; and the cluster analysis (329) is configured to formulate thepositioning of the points to drive the clustering of the points. Inother embodiments, the cluster analysis (329) can also be performedusing the techniques of Self Organizing Maps (SOM), which can identifyand show clusters of multi-dimensional data using a representation on atwo-dimensional map.

Once the cluster definitions (333) are obtained from the clusteranalysis (329), the identity of the cluster (e.g., cluster ID (343))that contains the entity ID (322) can be used to characterize spendingbehavior of the entity represented by the entity ID (322). The entitiesin the same cluster are considered to have similar spending behaviors.

Similarities and differences among the entities, such as accounts,individuals, families, etc., as represented by the entity ID (e.g., 322)and characterized by the variable values (e.g., 323, 324, . . . , 325)can be identified via the cluster analysis (329). In one embodiment,after a number of clusters of entity IDs are identified based on thepatterns of the aggregated measurements, a set of profiles can begenerated for the clusters to represent the characteristics of theclusters. Once the clusters are identified, each of the entity IDs(e.g., corresponding to an account, individual, family) can be assignedto one cluster; and the profile for the corresponding cluster may beused to represent, at least in part, the entity (e.g., account,individual, family). Alternatively, the relationship between an entity(e.g., an account, individual, family) and one or more clusters can bedetermined (e.g., based on a measurement of closeness to each cluster).Thus, the cluster related data can be used in a transaction profile (127or 341) to provide information about the behavior of the entity (e.g.,an account, an individual, a family).

In one embodiment, more than one set of cluster definitions (333) isgenerated from cluster analyses (329). For example, cluster analyses(329) may generate different sets of cluster solutions corresponding todifferent numbers of identified clusters. A set of cluster IDs (e.g.,343) can be used to summarize (335) the spending behavior of the entityrepresented by the entity ID (322), based on the typical spendingbehavior of the respective clusters. In one example, two clustersolutions are obtained; one of the cluster solutions has 17 clusters,which classify the entities in a relatively coarse manner; and the othercluster solution has 55 clusters, which classify the entities in arelative fine manner. A cardholder can be identified by the spendingbehavior of one of the 17 clusters and one of the 55 clusters in whichthe cardholder is located. Thus, the set of cluster IDs corresponding tothe set of cluster solutions provides a hierarchical identification ofan entity among clusters of different levels of resolution. The spendingbehavior of the clusters is represented by the cluster definitions(333), such as the parameters (e.g., variable values) that define thecentroids of the clusters.

In one embodiment, the random variables (e.g., 313 and 315) as definedby the definitions (309) have certain degrees of correlation and are notindependent from each other. For example, merchants of differentmerchant categories (e.g., 306) may have overlapping business, or havecertain business relationships. For example, certain products and/orservices of certain merchants have cause and effect relationships. Forexample, certain products and/or services of certain merchants aremutually exclusive to a certain degree (e.g., a purchase from onemerchant may have a level of probability to exclude the user (101) frommaking a purchase from another merchant). Such relationships may becomplex and difficult to quantify by merely inspecting the categories.Further, such relationships may shift over time as the economy changes.

In one embodiment, a factor analysis (327) is performed to reduce theredundancy and/or correlation among the variables (e.g., 313, 315). Thefactor analysis (327) identifies the definitions (331) for factors, eachof which represents a combination of the variables (e.g., 313, 315).

In one embodiment, a factor is a linear combination of a plurality ofthe aggregated measurements (e.g., variables (313, 315)) determined forvarious areas (e.g., merchants or merchant categories, products orproduct categories). Once the relationship between the factors and theaggregated measurements is determined via factor analysis, the valuesfor the factors can be determined from the linear combinations of theaggregated measurements and be used in a transaction profile (127 or341) to provide information on the behavior of the entity represented bythe entity ID (e.g., an account, an individual, a family).

Once the factor definitions (331) are obtained from the factor analysis(327), the factor definitions (331) can be applied to the variablevalues (321) to determine factor values (344) for the aggregatedspending profile (341). Since redundancy and correlation are reduced inthe factors, the number of factors is typically much smaller than thenumber of the original variables (e.g., 313, 315). Thus, the factorvalues (344) represent the concise summary of the original variables(e.g., 313, 315).

For example, there may be thousands of variables on spending frequencyand amount for different merchant categories; and the factor analysis(327) can reduce the factor number to less than one hundred (and evenless than twenty). In one example, a twelve-factor solution is obtained,which allows the use of twelve factors to combine the thousands of theoriginal variables (313, 315); and thus, the spending behavior inthousands of merchant categories can be summarized via twelve factorvalues (344). In one embodiment, each factor is combination of at leastfour variables; and a typical variable has contributions to more thanone factor.

In one example, hundreds or thousands of transaction records (301) of acardholder are converted into hundreds or thousands of variable values(321) for various merchant categories, which are summarized (335) viathe factor definitions (331) and cluster definitions (333) into twelvefactor values (344) and one or two cluster IDs (e.g., 343). Thesummarized data can be readily interpreted by a human to ascertain thespending behavior of the cardholder. A user (101) may easily specify aspending behavior requirement formulated based on the factor values(344) and the cluster IDs (e.g., to query for a segment of customers, orto request the targeting of a segment of customers). The reduced size ofthe summarized data reduces the need for data communication bandwidthfor communicating the spending behavior of the cardholder over a networkconnection and allows simplified processing and utilization of the datarepresenting the spending behavior of the cardholder.

In one embodiment, the behavior and characteristics of the clusters arestudied to identify a description of a type of representative entitiesthat are found in each of the clusters. The clusters can be named basedon the type of representative entities to allow an ordinary person toeasily understand the typical behavior of the clusters.

In one embodiment, the behavior and characteristics of the factors arealso studied to identify dominant aspects of each factor. The clusterscan be named based on the dominant aspects to allow an ordinary personto easily understand the meaning of a factor value.

In FIG. 2, an aggregated spending profile (341) for an entityrepresented by an entity ID (e.g., 322) includes the cluster ID (343)and factor values (344) determined based on the cluster definitions(333) and the factor definitions (331). The aggregated spending profile(341) may further include other statistical parameters, such asdiversity index (342), channel distribution (345), category distribution(346), zip code (347), etc., as further discussed below.

In one embodiment, the diversity index (342) may include an entropyvalue and/or a Gini coefficient, to represent the diversity of thespending by the entity represented by the entity ID (322) acrossdifferent areas (e.g., different merchant categories (e.g., 306)). Whenthe diversity index (342) indicates that the diversity of the spendingdata is under a predetermined threshold level, the variable values(e.g., 323, 324, . . . , 325) for the corresponding entity ID (322) maybe excluded from the cluster analysis (329) and/or the factor analysis(327) due to the lack of diversity. When the diversity index (342) ofthe aggregated spending profile (341) is lower than a predeterminedthreshold, the factor values (344) and the cluster ID (343) may notaccurately represent the spending behavior of the corresponding entity.

In one embodiment, the channel distribution (345) includes a set ofpercentage values that indicate the percentages of amounts spent indifferent purchase channels, such as online, via phone, in a retailstore, etc.

In one embodiment, the category distribution (346) includes a set ofpercentage values that indicate the percentages of spending amounts indifferent super categories (311). In one embodiment, thousands ofdifferent merchant categories (e.g., 306) are represented by MerchantCategory Codes (MCC), or North American Industry Classification System(NAICS) codes in transaction records (301). These merchant categories(e.g., 306) are classified or combined into less than one hundred supercategories (or less than twenty). In one example, fourteen supercategories are defined based on domain knowledge.

In one embodiment, the aggregated spending profile (341) includes theaggregated measurements (e.g., frequency, average spending amount)determined for a set of predefined, mutually exclusive merchantcategories (e.g., super categories (311)). Each of the super merchantcategories represents a type of products or services a customer maypurchase. A transaction profile (127 or 341) may include the aggregatedmeasurements for each of the set of mutually exclusive merchantcategories. The aggregated measurements determined for the predefined,mutually exclusive merchant categories can be used in transactionprofiles (127 or 341) to provide information on the behavior of arespective entity (e.g., an account, an individual, or a family).

In one embodiment, the zip code (347) in the aggregated spending profile(341) represents the dominant geographic area in which the spendingassociated with the entity ID (322) occurred. Alternatively or incombination, the aggregated spending profile (341) may include adistribution of transaction amounts over a set of zip codes that accountfor a majority of the transactions or transaction amounts (e.g., 90%).

In one embodiment, the factor analysis (327) and cluster analysis (329)are used to summarize the spending behavior across various areas, suchas different merchants characterized by merchant category (306),different products and/or services, different consumers, etc. Theaggregated spending profile (341) may include more or fewer fields thanthose illustrated in FIG. 2. For example, in one embodiment, theaggregated spending profile (341) further includes an aggregatedspending amount for a period of time (e.g., the past twelve months); inanother embodiment, the aggregated spending profile (341) does notinclude the category distribution (346); and in a further embodiment,the aggregated spending profile (341) may include a set of distancemeasures to the centroids of the clusters. The distance measures may bedefined based on the variable values (323, 324, . . . , 325), or basedon the factor values (344). The factor values of the centroids of theclusters may be estimated based on the entity ID (e.g., 322) that isclosest to the centroid in the respective cluster.

Other variables can be used in place of, or in additional to, thevariables (311, 313, 315) illustrated in FIG. 2. For example, theaggregated spending profile (341) can be generated using variablesmeasuring shopping radius/distance from the primary address of theaccount holder to the merchant site for offline purchases. When suchvariables are used, the transaction patterns can be identified based atleast in part on clustering according to shopping radius/distance andgeographic regions. Similarly, the factor definition (331) may includethe consideration of the shopping radius/distance. For example, thetransaction records (301) may be aggregated based on the ranges ofshopping radius/distance and/or geographic regions. For example, thefactor analysis can be used to determine factors that naturally combinegeographical areas based on the correlations in the spending patterns invarious geographical areas.

In one embodiment, the aggregation (317) may involve the determinationof a deviation from a trend or pattern. For example, an account makes acertain number of purchases a week at a merchant over the past 6 months.However, in the past 2 weeks the number of purchases is less than theaverage number per week. A measurement of the deviation from the trendor pattern can be used (e.g., in a transaction profile (127 or 341) as aparameter, or in variable definitions (309) for the factor analysis(327) and/or the cluster analysis) to define the behavior of an account,an individual, a family, etc.

FIG. 3 shows a method to generate an aggregated spending profileaccording to one embodiment. In FIG. 3, computation models areestablished (351) for variables (e.g., 311, 313, and 315). In oneembodiment, the variables are defined in a way to capture certainaspects of the spending statistics, such as frequency, amount, etc.

In FIG. 3, data from related accounts are combined (353). For example,when an account number change has occurred for a cardholder in the timeperiod under analysis, the transaction records (301) under the differentaccount numbers of the same cardholder are combined under one accountnumber that represents the cardholder. For example, when the analysis isperformed at a person level (or family level, business level, socialgroup level, city level, or region level), the transaction records (301)in different accounts of the person (or family, business, social group,city or region) can be combined under one entity ID (322) thatrepresents the person (or family, business, social group, city orregion).

In one embodiment, recurrent/installment transactions are combined(355). For example, multiple monthly payments may be combined andconsidered as one single purchase.

In FIG. 3, account data are selected (357) according to a set ofcriteria related to activity, consistency, diversity, etc.

For example, when a cardholder uses a credit card solely to purchasegas, the diversity of the transactions by the cardholder is low. In sucha case, the transactions in the account of the cardholder may not bestatistically meaningful to represent the spending pattern of thecardholder in various merchant categories. Thus, in one embodiment, ifthe diversity of the transactions associated with an entity ID (322) isbelow a threshold, the variable values (e.g., 323, 324, . . . , 325)corresponding to the entity ID (322) are not used in the clusteranalysis (329) and/or the factor analysis (327). The diversity can beexamined based on the diversity index (342) (e.g., entropy or Ginicoefficient), or based on counting the different merchant categories inthe transactions associated with the entity ID (322); and when the countof different merchant categories is fewer than a threshold (e.g., 5),the transactions associated with the entity ID (322) are not used in thecluster analysis (329) and/or the factor analysis (327) due to the lackof diversity.

For example, when a cardholder uses a credit card only sporadically(e.g., when running out of cash), the limited transactions by thecardholder may not be statistically meaningful in representing thespending behavior of the cardholder. Thus, in one embodiment, when thenumbers of transactions associated with an entity ID (322) is below athreshold, the variable values (e.g., 323, 324, . . . , 325)corresponding to the entity ID (322) are not used in the clusteranalysis (329) and/or the factor analysis (327).

For example, when a cardholder has only used a credit card during aportion of the time period under analysis, the transaction records (301)during the time period may not reflect the consistent behavior of thecardholder for the entire time period. Consistency can be checked invarious ways. In one example, if the total number of transactions duringthe first and last months of the time period under analysis is zero, thetransactions associated with the entity ID (322) are inconsistent in thetime period and thus are not used in the cluster analysis (329) and/orthe factor analysis (327). Other criteria can be formulated to detectinconsistency in the transactions.

In FIG. 3, the computation models (e.g., as represented by the variabledefinitions (309)) are applied (359) to the remaining account data(e.g., transaction records (301)) to obtain data samples for thevariables. The data points associated with the entities, other thanthose whose transactions fail to meet the minimum requirements foractivity, consistency, diversity, etc., are used in factor analysis(327) and cluster analysis (329).

In FIG. 3, the data samples (e.g., variable values (321)) are used toperform (361) factor analysis (327) to identify factor solutions (e.g.,factor definitions (331)). The factor solutions can be adjusted (363) toimprove similarity in factor values of different sets of transactiondata (109). For example, factor definitions (331) can be applied to thetransactions in the time period under analysis (e.g., the past twelvemonths) and be applied separately to the transactions in a prior timeperiod (e.g., the twelve months before the past twelve months) to obtaintwo sets of factor values. The factor definitions (331) can be adjustedto improve the correlation between the two set of factor values.

The data samples can also be used to perform (365) cluster analysis(329) to identify cluster solutions (e.g., cluster definitions (333)).The cluster solutions can be adjusted (367) to improve similarity incluster identifications based on different sets of transaction data(109). For example, cluster definitions (333) can be applied to thetransactions in the time period under analysis (e.g., the past twelvemonths) and be applied separately to the transactions in a prior timeperiod (e.g., the twelve months before the past twelve months) to obtaintwo sets of cluster identifications for various entities. The clusterdefinitions (333) can be adjusted to improve the correlation between thetwo set of cluster identifications.

In one embodiment, the number of clusters is determined from clusteringanalysis. For example, a set of cluster seeds can be initiallyidentified and used to run a known clustering algorithm. The sizes ofdata points in the clusters are then examined. When a cluster containsless than a predetermined number of data points, the cluster may beeliminated to rerun the clustering analysis.

In one embodiment, standardizing entropy is added to the clustersolution to obtain improved results.

In one embodiment, human understandable characteristics of the factorsand clusters are identified (369) to name the factors and clusters. Forexample, when the spending behavior of a cluster appears to be thebehavior of an internet loyalist, the cluster can be named “internetloyalist” such that if a cardholder is found to be in the “internetloyalist” cluster, the spending preferences and patterns of thecardholder can be easily perceived.

In one embodiment, the factor analysis (327) and the cluster analysis(329) are performed periodically (e.g., once a year, or six months) toupdate the factor definitions (331) and the cluster definitions (333),which may change as the economy and the society change over time.

In FIG. 3, transaction data (109) are summarized (371) using the factorsolutions and cluster solutions to generate the aggregated spendingprofile (341). The aggregated spending profile (341) can be updated morefrequently than the factor solutions and cluster solutions, when the newtransaction data (109) becomes available. For example, the aggregatedspending profile (341) may be updated quarterly or monthly.

Various tweaks and adjustments can be made for the variables (e.g., 313,315) used for the factor analysis (327) and the cluster analysis (329).For example, the transaction records (301) may be filtered, weighted orconstrained, according to different rules to improve the capabilities ofthe aggregated measurements in indicating certain aspects of thespending behavior of the customers.

Transaction Data Based Portal

In FIG. 1, the transaction terminal (105) initiates the transaction fora user (101) (e.g., a customer) for processing by a transaction handler(103). The transaction handler (103) processes the transaction andstores transaction data (109) about the transaction, in connection withaccount data (111), such as the account profile of an account of theuser (101). The account data (111) may further include data about theuser (101), collected from issuers or merchants, and/or other sources,such as social networks, credit bureaus, merchant provided information,address information, etc. In one embodiment, a transaction may beinitiated by a server (e.g., based on a stored schedule for recurrentpayments).

Over a period of time, the transaction handler (103) accumulates thetransaction data (109) from transactions initiated at differenttransaction terminals (e.g., 105) for different users (e.g., 101). Thetransaction data (109) thus includes information on purchases made byvarious users (e.g., 101) at various times via different purchasesoptions (e.g., online purchase, offline purchase from a retail store,mail order, order via phone, etc.)

In one embodiment, the accumulated transaction data (109) and thecorresponding account data (111) are used to generate intelligenceinformation about the purchase behavior, pattern, preference, tendency,frequency, trend, amount and/or propensity of the users (e.g., 101), asindividuals or as a member of a group. The intelligence information canthen be used to generate, identify and/or select targeted advertisementsfor presentation to the user (101) on the point of interaction (107),during a transaction, after a transaction, or when other opportunitiesarise.

FIG. 4 shows a system to provide information based on transaction data(109) according to one embodiment. In FIG. 4, the transaction handler(103) is coupled between an issuer processor (145) and an acquirerprocessor (147) to facilitate authorization and settlement oftransactions between a consumer account (146) and a merchant account(148). The transaction handler (103) records the transactions in thedata warehouse (149). The portal (143) is coupled to the data warehouse(149) to provide information based on the transaction records (301),such as the transaction profiles (127) or aggregated spending profile(341). The portal (143) may be implemented as a web portal, a telephonegateway, a file/data server, etc.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) is configured to receive queriesidentifying search criteria from the profile selector (129), theadvertisement selector (133) and/or third parties and in response, toprovide transaction-based intelligence requested by the queries.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) is configured to register certainusers (101) for various programs, such as a loyalty program to providerewards and/or offers to the users (101).

In one embodiment, the portal (143) is to register the interest of users(101), or to obtain permissions from the users (101) to gather furtherinformation about the users (101), such as data capturing purchasedetails, online activities, etc.

In one embodiment, the user (101) may register via the issuer; and theregistration data in the consumer account (146) may propagate to thedata warehouse (149) upon approval from the user (101).

In one embodiment, the portal (143) is to register merchants and provideservices and/or information to merchants.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) is to receive information from thirdparties, such as search engines, merchants, websites, etc. The thirdparty data can be correlated with the transaction data (109) to identifythe relationships between purchases and other events, such as searches,news announcements, conferences, meetings, etc., and improve theprediction capability and accuracy.

In FIG. 4, the consumer account (146) is under the control of the issuerprocessor (145). The consumer account (146) may be owned by anindividual, or an organization such as a business, a school, etc. Theconsumer account (146) may be a credit account, a debit account, or astored value account. The issuer may provide the consumer (e.g., user(101)) an account identification device (141) to identify the consumeraccount (146) using the account information (142). The respectiveconsumer of the account (146) can be called an account holder or acardholder, even when the consumer is not physically issued a card, orthe account identification device (141), in one embodiment. The issuerprocessor (145) is to charge the consumer account (146) to pay forpurchases.

In one embodiment, the account identification device (141) is a plasticcard having a magnetic strip storing account information (142)identifying the consumer account (146) and/or the issuer processor(145). Alternatively, the account identification device (141) is asmartcard having an integrated circuit chip storing at least the accountinformation (142). In one embodiment, the account identification device(141) includes a mobile phone having an integrated smartcard.

In one embodiment, the account information (142) is printed or embossedon the account identification device (141). The account information(142) may be printed as a bar code to allow the transaction terminal(105) to read the information via an optical scanner. The accountinformation (142) may be stored in a memory of the accountidentification device (141) and configured to be read via wireless,contactless communications, such as near field communications viamagnetic field coupling, infrared communications, or radio frequencycommunications. Alternatively, the transaction terminal (105) mayrequire contact with the account identification device (141) to read theaccount information (142) (e.g., by reading the magnetic strip of a cardwith a magnetic strip reader).

In one embodiment, the transaction terminal (105) is configured totransmit an authorization request message to the acquirer processor(147). The authorization request includes the account information (142),an amount of payment, and information about the merchant (e.g., anindication of the merchant account (148)). The acquirer processor (147)requests the transaction handler (103) to process the authorizationrequest, based on the account information (142) received in thetransaction terminal (105). The transaction handler (103) routes theauthorization request to the issuer processor (145) and may process andrespond to the authorization request when the issuer processor (145) isnot available. The issuer processor (145) determines whether toauthorize the transaction based at least in part on a balance of theconsumer account (146).

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103), the issuer processor(145), and the acquirer processor (147) may each include a subsystem toidentify the risk in the transaction and may reject the transactionbased on the risk assessment.

In one embodiment, the account identification device (141) includessecurity features to prevent unauthorized uses of the consumer account(146), such as a logo to show the authenticity of the accountidentification device (141), encryption to protect the accountinformation (142), etc.

In one embodiment, the transaction terminal (105) is configured tointeract with the account identification device (141) to obtain theaccount information (142) that identifies the consumer account (146)and/or the issuer processor (145). The transaction terminal (105)communicates with the acquirer processor (147) that controls themerchant account (148) of a merchant. The transaction terminal (105) maycommunicate with the acquirer processor (147) via a data communicationconnection, such as a telephone connection, an Internet connection, etc.The acquirer processor (147) is to collect payments into the merchantaccount (148) on behalf of the merchant.

In one embodiment, the transaction terminal (105) is a POS terminal at atraditional, offline, “brick and mortar” retail store. In anotherembodiment, the transaction terminal (105) is an online server thatreceives account information (142) of the consumer account (146) fromthe user (101) through a web connection. In one embodiment, the user(101) may provide account information (142) through a telephone call,via verbal communications with a representative of the merchant; and therepresentative enters the account information (142) into the transactionterminal (105) to initiate the transaction.

In one embodiment, the account information (142) can be entered directlyinto the transaction terminal (105) to make payment from the consumeraccount (146), without having to physically present the accountidentification device (141). When a transaction is initiated withoutphysically presenting an account identification device (141), thetransaction is classified as a “card-not-present” (CNP) transaction.

In one embodiment, the issuer processor (145) may control more than oneconsumer account (146); the acquirer processor (147) may control morethan one merchant account (148); and the transaction handler (103) isconnected between a plurality of issuer processors (e.g., 145) and aplurality of acquirer processors (e.g., 147). An entity (e.g., bank) mayoperate both an issuer processor (145) and an acquirer processor (147).

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103), the issuer processor(145), the acquirer processor (147), the transaction terminal (105), theportal (143), and other devices and/or services accessing the portal(143) are connected via communications networks, such as local areanetworks, cellular telecommunications networks, wireless wide areanetworks, wireless local area networks, an intranet, and Internet. Inone embodiment, dedicated communication channels are used between thetransaction handler (103) and the issuer processor (145), between thetransaction handler (103) and the acquirer processor (147), and/orbetween the portal (143) and the transaction handler (103).

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103) uses the data warehouse(149) to store the records about the transactions, such as thetransaction records (301) or transaction data (109). In one embodiment,the transaction handler (103) includes a powerful computer, or clusterof computers functioning as a unit, controlled by instructions stored ona computer readable medium.

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103) is configured tosupport and deliver authorization services, exception file services, andclearing and settlement services. In one embodiment, the transactionhandler (103) has a subsystem to process authorization requests andanother subsystem to perform clearing and settlement services.

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103) is configured toprocess different types of transactions, such credit card transactions,debit card transactions, prepaid card transactions, and other types ofcommercial transactions.

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103) facilitates thecommunications between the issuer processor (145) and the acquirerprocessor (147).

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103) is coupled to theportal (143) (and/or the profile selector (129), the advertisementselector (133), the media controller (115)) to charge the fees for theservices of providing the transaction-based intelligence informationand/or advertisement.

For example, in one embodiment, the system illustrated in FIG. 1 isconfigured to deliver advertisements to the point of interaction (107)of the user (101), based on the transaction-based intelligenceinformation; and the transaction handler (103) is configured to chargethe advertisement fees to the account of the advertiser in communicationwith the issuer processor in control of the account of the advertiser.The advertisement fees may be charged in response to the presentation ofthe advertisement, or in response to the completion of a pre-determinednumber of presentations, or in response to a transaction resulted fromthe presentation of the advertisement. In one embodiment, thetransaction handler (103) is configured to a periodic fee (e.g., monthlyfee, annual fee) to the account of the advertiser in communication withthe respective issuer processor that is similar to the issuer processor(145) of the consumer account (146).

For example, in one embodiment, the portal (143) is configured toprovide transaction-based intelligence information in response to thequeries received in the portal (143). The portal (143) is to identifythe requesters (e.g., via an authentication, or the address of therequesters) and instruct the transaction handler (103) to charge theconsumer accounts (e.g., 146) of the respective requesters for thetransaction-based intelligence information. In one embodiment, theaccounts of the requesters are charged in response to the delivery ofthe intelligence information via the portal (143). In one embodiment,the accounts of the requesters are charged a periodic subscription feefor the access to the query capability of the portal (143).

In one embodiment, the information service provided by the systemillustrated in FIG. 1 includes multiple parties, such as one entityoperating the transaction handler (103), one entity operating theadvertisement data (135), one entity operating the user tracker (113),one entity operating the media controller (115), etc. The transactionhandler (103) is used to generate transactions to settle the fees,charges and/or divide revenues using the accounts of the respectiveparties. In one embodiment, the account information of the parties isstored in the data warehouse (149) coupled to the transaction handler(103). In some embodiments, a separate billing engine is used togenerate the transactions to settle the fees, charges and/or dividerevenues.

In one embodiment, the transaction terminal (105) is configured tosubmit the authorized transactions to the acquirer processor (147) forsettlement. The amount for the settlement may be different from theamount specified in the authorization request. The transaction handler(103) is coupled between the issuer processor (145) and the acquirerprocessor (147) to facilitate the clearing and settling of thetransaction. Clearing includes the exchange of financial informationbetween the issuer processor (145) and the acquirer processor (147); andsettlement includes the exchange of funds.

In one embodiment, the issuer processor (145) is to provide funds tomake payments on behalf of the consumer account (146). The acquirerprocessor (147) is to receive the funds on behalf of the merchantaccount (148). The issuer processor (145) and the acquirer processor(147) communicate with the transaction handler (103) to coordinate thetransfer of funds for the transaction. In one embodiment, the funds aretransferred electronically.

In one embodiment, the transaction terminal (105) may submit atransaction directly for settlement, without having to separately submitan authorization request.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) provides a user interface to allowthe user (101) to organize the transactions in one or more consumeraccounts (146) of the user with one or more issuers. The user (101) mayorganize the transactions using information and/or categories identifiedin the transaction records (301), such as merchant category (306),transaction date (303), amount (304), etc. Examples and techniques inone embodiment are provided in U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/378,215, filed Mar. 16, 2006, assigned Pub. No. 2007/0055597, andentitled “Method and System for Manipulating Purchase Information,” thedisclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.

In one embodiment, the portal (143) provides transaction basedstatistics, such as indicators for retail spending monitoring,indicators for merchant benchmarking, industry/market segmentation,indicators of spending patterns, etc. Further examples can be found inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/191,796, filed Aug. 14, 2008,assigned Pub. No. 2009/0048884, and entitled “Merchant BenchmarkingTool,” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/940,562, filed Nov. 5, 2010,and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/940,664, filed Nov. 5, 2010, thedisclosures of which applications are hereby incorporated herein byreference.

Transaction Terminal

FIG. 5 illustrates a transaction terminal according to one embodiment.In FIG. 5, the transaction terminal (105) is configured to interact withan account identification device (141) to obtain account information(142) about the consumer account (146).

In one embodiment, the transaction terminal (105) includes a memory(167) coupled to the processor (151), which controls the operations of areader (163), an input device (153), an output device (165) and anetwork interface (161). The memory (167) may store instructions for theprocessor (151) and/or data, such as an identification that isassociated with the merchant account (148).

In one embodiment, the reader (163) includes a magnetic strip reader. Inanother embodiment, the reader (163) includes a contactless reader, suchas a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader, a near fieldcommunications (NFC) device configured to read data via magnetic fieldcoupling (in accordance with ISO standard 14443/NFC), a Bluetoothtransceiver, a WiFi transceiver, an infrared transceiver, a laserscanner, etc.

In one embodiment, the input device (153) includes key buttons that canbe used to enter the account information (142) directly into thetransaction terminal (105) without the physical presence of the accountidentification device (141). The input device (153) can be configured toprovide further information to initiate a transaction, such as apersonal identification number (PIN), password, zip code, etc. that maybe used to access the account identification device (141), or incombination with the account information (142) obtained from the accountidentification device (141).

In one embodiment, the output device (165) may include a display, aspeaker, and/or a printer to present information, such as the result ofan authorization request, a receipt for the transaction, anadvertisement, etc.

In one embodiment, the network interface (161) is configured tocommunicate with the acquirer processor (147) via a telephoneconnection, an Internet connection, or a dedicated data communicationchannel.

In one embodiment, the instructions stored in the memory (167) areconfigured at least to cause the transaction terminal (105) to send anauthorization request message to the acquirer processor (147) toinitiate a transaction. The transaction terminal (105) may or may notsend a separate request for the clearing and settling of thetransaction. The instructions stored in the memory (167) are alsoconfigured to cause the transaction terminal (105) to perform othertypes of functions discussed in this description.

In one embodiment, a transaction terminal (105) may have fewercomponents than those illustrated in FIG. 5. For example, in oneembodiment, the transaction terminal (105) is configured for“card-not-present” transactions; and the transaction terminal (105) doesnot have a reader (163).

In one embodiment, a transaction terminal (105) may have more componentsthan those illustrated in FIG. 5. For example, in one embodiment, thetransaction terminal (105) is an ATM machine, which includes componentsto dispense cash under certain conditions.

Account Identification Device

FIG. 6 illustrates an account identifying device according to oneembodiment. In FIG. 6, the account identification device (141) isconfigured to carry account information (142) that identifies theconsumer account (146).

In one embodiment, the account identification device (141) includes amemory (167) coupled to the processor (151), which controls theoperations of a communication device (159), an input device (153), anaudio device (157) and a display device (155). The memory (167) maystore instructions for the processor (151) and/or data, such as theaccount information (142) associated with the consumer account (146).

In one embodiment, the account information (142) includes an identifieridentifying the issuer (and thus the issuer processor (145)) among aplurality of issuers, and an identifier identifying the consumer accountamong a plurality of consumer accounts controlled by the issuerprocessor (145). The account information (142) may include an expirationdate of the account identification device (141), the name of theconsumer holding the consumer account (146), and/or an identifieridentifying the account identification device (141) among a plurality ofaccount identification devices associated with the consumer account(146).

In one embodiment, the account information (142) may further include aloyalty program account number, accumulated rewards of the consumer inthe loyalty program, an address of the consumer, a balance of theconsumer account (146), transit information (e.g., a subway or trainpass), access information (e.g., access badges), and/or consumerinformation (e.g., name, date of birth), etc.

In one embodiment, the memory includes a nonvolatile memory, such asmagnetic strip, a memory chip, a flash memory, a Read Only Memory (ROM),etc. to store the account information (142).

In one embodiment, the information stored in the memory (167) of theaccount identification device (141) may also be in the form of datatracks that are traditionally associated with credits cards. Such tracksinclude Track 1 and Track 2. Track 1 (“International Air TransportAssociation”) stores more information than Track 2, and contains thecardholder's name as well as the account number and other discretionarydata. Track 1 is sometimes used by airlines when securing reservationswith a credit card. Track 2 (“American Banking Association”) iscurrently most commonly used and is read by ATMs and credit cardcheckers. The ABA (American Banking Association) designed thespecifications of Track 1 and banks abide by it. It contains thecardholder's account number, encrypted PIN, and other discretionarydata.

In one embodiment, the communication device (159) includes asemiconductor chip to implement a transceiver for communication with thereader (163) and an antenna to provide and/or receive wireless signals.

In one embodiment, the communication device (159) is configured tocommunicate with the reader (163). The communication device (159) mayinclude a transmitter to transmit the account information (142) viawireless transmissions, such as radio frequency signals, magneticcoupling, or infrared, Bluetooth or WiFi signals, etc.

In one embodiment, the account identification device (141) is in theform of a mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), etc. The inputdevice (153) can be used to provide input to the processor (151) tocontrol the operation of the account identification device (141); andthe audio device (157) and the display device (155) may present statusinformation and/or other information, such as advertisements or offers.The account identification device (141) may include further componentsthat are not shown in FIG. 6, such as a cellular communicationssubsystem.

In one embodiment, the communication device (159) may access the accountinformation (142) stored on the memory (167) without going through theprocessor (151).

In one embodiment, the account identification device (141) has fewercomponents than those illustrated in FIG. 6. For example, an accountidentification device (141) does not have the input device (153), theaudio device (157) and the display device (155) in one embodiment; andin another embodiment, an account identification device (141) does nothave components (151-159).

For example, in one embodiment, an account identification device (141)is in the form of a debit card, a credit card, a smartcard, or aconsumer device that has optional features such as magnetic strips, orsmartcards.

An example of an account identification device (141) is a magnetic stripattached to a plastic substrate in the form of a card. The magneticstrip is used as the memory (167) of the account identification device(141) to provide the account information (142). Consumer information,such as account number, expiration date, and consumer name may beprinted or embossed on the card. A semiconductor chip implementing thememory (167) and the communication device (159) may also be embedded inthe plastic card to provide account information (142) in one embodiment.In one embodiment, the account identification device (141) has thesemiconductor chip but not the magnetic strip.

In one embodiment, the account identification device (141) is integratedwith a security device, such as an access card, a radio frequencyidentification (RFID) tag, a security card, a transponder, etc.

In one embodiment, the account identification device (141) is a handheldand compact device. In one embodiment, the account identification device(141) has a size suitable to be placed in a wallet or pocket of theconsumer.

Some examples of an account identification device (141) include a creditcard, a debit card, a stored value device, a payment card, a gift card,a smartcard, a smart media card, a payroll card, a health care card, awrist band, a keychain device, a supermarket discount card, atransponder, and a machine readable medium containing accountinformation (142).

Point of Interaction

In one embodiment, the point of interaction (107) is to provide anadvertisement to the user (101), or to provide information derived fromthe transaction data (109) to the user (101).

In one embodiment, an advertisement is a marketing interaction which mayinclude an announcement and/or an offer of a benefit, such as adiscount, incentive, reward, coupon, gift, cash back, or opportunity(e.g., special ticket/admission). An advertisement may include an offerof a product or service, an announcement of a product or service, or apresentation of a brand of products or services, or a notice of events,facts, opinions, etc. The advertisements can be presented in text,graphics, audio, video, or animation, and as printed matter, webcontent, interactive media, etc. An advertisement may be presented inresponse to the presence of a financial transaction card, or in responseto a financial transaction card being used to make a financialtransaction, or in response to other user activities, such as browsing aweb page, submitting a search request, communicating online, entering awireless communication zone, etc. In one embodiment, the presentation ofadvertisements may be not a result of a user action.

In one embodiment, the point of interaction (107) can be one of variousendpoints of the transaction network, such as point of sale (POS)terminals, automated teller machines (ATMs), electronic kiosks (orcomputer kiosks or interactive kiosks), self-assist checkout terminals,vending machines, gas pumps, websites of banks (e.g., issuer banks oracquirer banks of credit cards), bank statements (e.g., credit cardstatements), websites of the transaction handler (103), websites ofmerchants, checkout websites or web pages for online purchases, etc.

In one embodiment, the point of interaction (107) may be the same as thetransaction terminal (105), such as a point of sale (POS) terminal, anautomated teller machine (ATM), a mobile phone, a computer of the userfor an online transaction, etc. In one embodiment, the point ofinteraction (107) may be co-located with, or near, the transactionterminal (105) (e.g., a video monitor or display, a digital sign), orproduced by the transaction terminal (e.g., a receipt produced by thetransaction terminal (105)). In one embodiment, the point of interaction(107) may be separate from and not co-located with the transactionterminal (105), such as a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant, apersonal computer of the user, a voice mail box of the user, an emailinbox of the user, a digital sign, etc.

For example, the advertisements can be presented on a portion of mediafor a transaction with the customer, which portion might otherwise beunused and thus referred to as a “white space” herein. A white space canbe on a printed matter (e.g., a receipt printed for the transaction, ora printed credit card statement), on a video display (e.g., a displaymonitor of a POS terminal for a retail transaction, an ATM for cashwithdrawal or money transfer, a personal computer of the customer foronline purchases), or on an audio channel (e.g., an interactive voiceresponse (IVR) system for a transaction over a telephonic device).

In one embodiment, the white space is part of a media channel availableto present a message from the transaction handler (103) in connectionwith the processing of a transaction of the user (101). In oneembodiment, the white space is in a media channel that is used to reportinformation about a transaction of the user (101), such as anauthorization status, a confirmation message, a verification message, auser interface to verify a password for the online use of the accountinformation (142), a monthly statement, an alert or a report, or a webpage provided by the portal (143) to access a loyalty program associatedwith the consumer account (146) or a registration program.

In other embodiments, the advertisements can also be presented via othermedia channels which may not involve a transaction processed by thetransaction handler (103). For example, the advertisements can bepresented on publications or announcements (e.g., newspapers, magazines,books, directories, radio broadcasts, television, digital signage, etc.,which may be in an electronic form, or in a printed or painted form).The advertisements may be presented on paper, on websites, onbillboards, on digital signs, or on audio portals.

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103) purchases the rights touse the media channels from the owner or operators of the media channelsand uses the media channels as advertisement spaces. For example, whitespaces at a point of interaction (e.g., 107) with customers fortransactions processed by the transaction handler (103) can be used todeliver advertisements relevant to the customers conducting thetransactions; and the advertisement can be selected based at least inpart on the intelligence information derived from the accumulatedtransaction data (109) and/or the context at the point of interaction(107) and/or the transaction terminal (105).

In general, a point of interaction (e.g., 107) may or may not be capableof receiving inputs from the customers, and may or may not co-locatedwith a transaction terminal (e.g., 105) that initiates the transactions.The white spaces for presenting the advertisement on the point ofinteraction (107) may be on a portion of a geographical display space(e.g., on a screen), or on a temporal space (e.g., in an audio stream).

In one embodiment, the point of interaction (107) may be used toprimarily to access services not provided by the transaction handler(103), such as services provided by a search engine, a social networkingwebsite, an online marketplace, a blog, a news site, a televisionprogram provider, a radio station, a satellite, a publisher, etc.

In one embodiment, a consumer device is used as the point of interaction(107), which may be a non-portable consumer device or a portablecomputing device. The consumer device is to provide media content to theuser (101) and may receive input from the user (101).

Examples of non-portable consumer devices include a computer terminal, atelevision set, a personal computer, a set-top box, or the like.Examples of portable consumer devices include a portable computer, acellular phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a pager, a securitycard, a wireless terminal, or the like. The consumer device may beimplemented as a data processing system as illustrated in FIG. 7, withmore or fewer components.

In one embodiment, the consumer device includes an accountidentification device (141). For example, a smart card used as anaccount identification device (141) is integrated with a mobile phone,or a personal digital assistant (PDA).

In one embodiment, the point of interaction (107) is integrated with atransaction terminal (105). For example, a self-service checkoutterminal includes a touch pad to interact with the user (101); and anATM machine includes a user interface subsystem to interact with theuser (101).

Hardware

In one embodiment, a computing apparatus is configured to include someof the modules or components illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 4, such as thetransaction handler (103), the profile generator (121), the mediacontroller (115), the portal (143), the profile selector (129), theadvertisement selector (133), the user tracker (113), the correlator,and their associated storage devices, such as the data warehouse (149).

In one embodiment, at least some of the modules or componentsillustrated in FIGS. 1 and 4, such as the transaction handler (103), thetransaction terminal (105), the point of interaction (107), the usertracker (113), the media controller (115), the correlator (117), theprofile generator (121), the profile selector (129), the advertisementselector (133), the portal (143), the issuer processor (145), theacquirer processor (147), and the account identification device (141),can be implemented as a computer system, such as a data processingsystem illustrated in FIG. 7, with more or fewer components. Some of themodules may share hardware or be combined on a computer system. In oneembodiment, a network of computers can be used to implement one or moreof the modules.

Further, the data illustrated in FIG. 1, such as transaction data (109),account data (111), transaction profiles (127), and advertisement data(135), can be stored in storage devices of one or more computersaccessible to the corresponding modules illustrated in FIG. 1. Forexample, the transaction data (109) can be stored in the data warehouse(149) that can be implemented as a data processing system illustrated inFIG. 7, with more or fewer components.

In one embodiment, the transaction handler (103) is a payment processingsystem, or a payment card processor, such as a card processor for creditcards, debit cards, etc.

FIG. 7 illustrates a data processing system according to one embodiment.While FIG. 7 illustrates various components of a computer system, it isnot intended to represent any particular architecture or manner ofinterconnecting the components. One embodiment may use other systemsthat have fewer or more components than those shown in FIG. 7.

In FIG. 7, the data processing system (170) includes an inter-connect(171) (e.g., bus and system core logic), which interconnects amicroprocessor(s) (173) and memory (167). The microprocessor (173) iscoupled to cache memory (179) in the example of FIG. 7.

In one embodiment, the inter-connect (171) interconnects themicroprocessor(s) (173) and the memory (167) together and alsointerconnects them to input/output (I/O) device(s) (175) via I/Ocontroller(s) (177). I/O devices (175) may include a display deviceand/or peripheral devices, such as mice, keyboards, modems, networkinterfaces, printers, scanners, video cameras and other devices known inthe art. In one embodiment, when the data processing system is a serversystem, some of the I/O devices (175), such as printers, scanners, mice,and/or keyboards, are optional.

In one embodiment, the inter-connect (171) includes one or more busesconnected to one another through various bridges, controllers and/oradapters. In one embodiment the I/O controllers (177) include a USB(Universal Serial Bus) adapter for controlling USB peripherals, and/oran IEEE-1394 bus adapter for controlling IEEE-1394 peripherals.

In one embodiment, the memory (167) includes one or more of: ROM (ReadOnly Memory), volatile RAM (Random Access Memory), and non-volatilememory, such as hard drive, flash memory, etc.

Volatile RAM is typically implemented as dynamic RAM (DRAM) whichrequires power continually in order to refresh or maintain the data inthe memory. Non-volatile memory is typically a magnetic hard drive, amagnetic optical drive, an optical drive (e.g., a DVD RAM), or othertype of memory system which maintains data even after power is removedfrom the system. The non-volatile memory may also be a random accessmemory.

The non-volatile memory can be a local device coupled directly to therest of the components in the data processing system. A non-volatilememory that is remote from the system, such as a network storage devicecoupled to the data processing system through a network interface suchas a modem or Ethernet interface, can also be used.

In this description, some functions and operations are described asbeing performed by or caused by software code to simplify description.However, such expressions are also used to specify that the functionsresult from execution of the code/instructions by a processor, such as amicroprocessor.

Alternatively, or in combination, the functions and operations asdescribed here can be implemented using special purpose circuitry, withor without software instructions, such as using Application-SpecificIntegrated Circuit (ASIC) or Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA).Embodiments can be implemented using hardwired circuitry withoutsoftware instructions, or in combination with software instructions.Thus, the techniques are limited neither to any specific combination ofhardware circuitry and software, nor to any particular source for theinstructions executed by the data processing system.

While one embodiment can be implemented in fully functioning computersand computer systems, various embodiments are capable of beingdistributed as a computing product in a variety of forms and are capableof being applied regardless of the particular type of machine orcomputer-readable media used to actually effect the distribution.

At least some aspects disclosed can be embodied, at least in part, insoftware. That is, the techniques may be carried out in a computersystem or other data processing system in response to its processor,such as a microprocessor, executing sequences of instructions containedin a memory, such as ROM, volatile RAM, non-volatile memory, cache or aremote storage device.

Routines executed to implement the embodiments may be implemented aspart of an operating system or a specific application, component,program, object, module or sequence of instructions referred to as“computer programs.” The computer programs typically include one or moreinstructions set at various times in various memory and storage devicesin a computer, and that, when read and executed by one or moreprocessors in a computer, cause the computer to perform operationsnecessary to execute elements involving the various aspects.

A machine readable medium can be used to store software and data whichwhen executed by a data processing system causes the system to performvarious methods. The executable software and data may be stored invarious places including for example ROM, volatile RAM, non-volatilememory and/or cache. Portions of this software and/or data may be storedin any one of these storage devices. Further, the data and instructionscan be obtained from centralized servers or peer to peer networks.Different portions of the data and instructions can be obtained fromdifferent centralized servers and/or peer to peer networks at differenttimes and in different communication sessions or in a same communicationsession. The data and instructions can be obtained in entirety prior tothe execution of the applications. Alternatively, portions of the dataand instructions can be obtained dynamically, just in time, when neededfor execution. Thus, it is not required that the data and instructionsbe on a machine readable medium in entirety at a particular instance oftime.

Examples of computer-readable media include but are not limited torecordable and non-recordable type media such as volatile andnon-volatile memory devices, read only memory (ROM), random accessmemory (RAM), flash memory devices, floppy and other removable disks,magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media (e.g., Compact DiskRead-Only Memory (CD ROMS), Digital Versatile Disks (DVDs), etc.), amongothers. The computer-readable media may store the instructions.

The instructions may also be embodied in digital and analogcommunication links for electrical, optical, acoustical or other formsof propagated signals, such as carrier waves, infrared signals, digitalsignals, etc. However, propagated signals, such as carrier waves,infrared signals, digital signals, etc. are not tangible machinereadable medium and are not configured to store instructions.

In general, a machine readable medium includes any mechanism thatprovides (i.e., stores and/or transmits) information in a formaccessible by a machine (e.g., a computer, network device, personaldigital assistant, manufacturing tool, any device with a set of one ormore processors, etc.).

In various embodiments, hardwired circuitry may be used in combinationwith software instructions to implement the techniques. Thus, thetechniques are neither limited to any specific combination of hardwarecircuitry and software nor to any particular source for the instructionsexecuted by the data processing system.

Other Aspects

The description and drawings are illustrative and are not to beconstrued as limiting. The present disclosure is illustrative ofinventive features to enable a person skilled in the art to make and usethe techniques. Various features, as described herein, should be used incompliance with all current and future rules, laws and regulationsrelated to privacy, security, permission, consent, authorization, andothers. Numerous specific details are described to provide a thoroughunderstanding. However, in certain instances, well known or conventionaldetails are not described in order to avoid obscuring the description.References to one or an embodiment in the present disclosure are notnecessarily references to the same embodiment; and, such references meanat least one.

The use of headings herein is merely provided for ease of reference, andshall not be interpreted in any way to limit this disclosure or thefollowing claims.

Reference to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particularfeature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with theembodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the disclosure. Theappearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in thespecification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment,and are not necessarily all referring to separate or alternativeembodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, variousfeatures are described which may be exhibited by one embodiment and notby others. Similarly, various requirements are described which may berequirements for one embodiment but not other embodiments. Unlessexcluded by explicit description and/or apparent incompatibility, anycombination of various features described in this description is alsoincluded here. For example, the features described above in connectionwith “in one embodiment” or “in some embodiments” can be all optionallyincluded in one implementation, except where the dependency of certainfeatures on other features, as apparent from the description, may limitthe options of excluding selected features from the implementation, andincompatibility of certain features with other features, as apparentfrom the description, may limit the options of including selectedfeatures together in the implementation.

The disclosures of the above discussed patent documents are herebyincorporated herein by reference.

In the foregoing specification, the disclosure has been described withreference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will be evidentthat various modifications may be made thereto without departing fromthe broader spirit and scope as set forth in the following claims. Thespecification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:receiving, in a computing apparatus, a request from a user device, therequest including a user identifier and user information provided by theuser device, the user identifier configured to representing a user ofthe user device; extracting, by the computing apparatus, a digitalsignature from the user identifier, the digital signature generated by apartner device separated from the user device and the computingapparatus; generating, by the computing apparatus, a dataset based atleast on the user information received in the request; and verifying, bythe computing apparatus, the dataset against the digital signatureextracted from the user identifier, wherein the verifying of the datasetagainst the digital signature comprises combining, by the computingapparatus, the dataset with a secret shared between the computingapparatus and the partner device to generate a combined dataset;applying, by the computing apparatus, a cryptographic one-way hashfunction on the combined dataset to generate a hash result; andcomparing, by the computing apparatus, the hash result with the digitalsignature to determine whether the hash result matches with the digitalsignature; and rejecting, by the computing apparatus, the request if thedataset fails verification against the digital signature.
 2. The methodof claim 1, further comprising: extracting a user identification fromthe user identifier, the user identification assigned by the partnerdevice to uniquely represent the user of the user device among aplurality of users of the partner device; wherein the dataset includingthe user identification assigned by the partner device.
 3. The method ofclaim 2, wherein the secret is not communicated through the user device.4. The method of claim 2, wherein the digital signature comprises a hashof the combined dataset.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the userinformation includes a user identification assigned by the partnerdevice to uniquely represent the user of the user device among aplurality of users of the partner device.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein the cryptographic one-way hash function is based on SHA-256designed by the National Security Agency (NSA) and published in 2001 bythe National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as a U.S.Federal Information Processing Standard.
 7. The method of claim 1,wherein the user information includes an identification of the userdevice extracted from the request received from the user device.
 8. Themethod of claim 7, wherein the user information includes informationsubmitted from the user device to the partner device and verified by thepartner device.
 9. The method of claim 7, wherein the user informationincludes information assigned by the partner device to the user device.10. The method of claim 1, further comprising: communicating the secretbetween the computing apparatus and the partner device using a secure,out-of-band channel that does not go through the user device, whereinthe digital signature is generated using the secret.
 11. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the secret represents the partner device in the digitalsignature provided in the user identifier.
 12. A non-transitory computerstorage medium storing instructions configured to instruct a user deviceto at least: communicate with a first computing apparatus to exchangeuser information; prior to communicate with a second computingapparatus, request a user identifier from the first computing apparatus,wherein the user identifier includes a digital signature generated bythe first computing apparatus; transmit a request to the secondcomputing apparatus, the request including the user information and theuser identifier, wherein the user identifier configured to representinga user of the user device, and the second computing apparatus isconfigured to determine whether or not to reject the request based onverifying a dataset generated based on the user information against thedigital signature included in the user identifier, wherein the verifyingof the dataset against the digital signature comprises combining thedataset with a secret shared between the second computing apparatus andthe first computing apparatus to generate a combined dataset; applying acryptographic one-way hash function on the combined dataset to generatea hash result; and comparing the hash result with the digital signatureto determine whether the hash result matches with the digital signature.13. The computer storage medium of claim 12, wherein the instructionsare configured to instruct the user device to provide at least a portionof the user information to the first computing apparatus and to thesecond computing apparatus separately.
 14. The computer storage mediumof claim 12, wherein the request is transmitted to the second computingapparatus in response to an instruction from the first computingapparatus.
 15. The computing storage medium of claim 12, wherein theuser information includes a communication reference of the user toreceive communications on the user device; and the user identifierincludes an identification assigned by the first computing apparatus touniquely identify the user among a plurality of users of the firstcomputing apparatus.
 16. A computing device, comprising: a least oneprocessor; a memory storing instructions configured to instruct the atleast one processor to: authenticate a user of a user device;communicate with the user device to identify user information; forming adataset including the user information; generate a digital signature onthe dataset by using a secret to represent the computing device;generate a user identifier for the user using the digital signature; andprovide the user identifier to the user device to represent the user;wherein the user device is configured to use the user identifier toidentify the user in a communication with a separate computing apparatusseparate from the user device and the computing device, thecommunication configured to provide the user information to the separatecomputing apparatus; and wherein the digital signature provided in theuser identifier is usable by the separate computing apparatus tovalidate the user information provided in the communication by combiningthe dataset with the secret shared between the separate computingapparatus and the computing device to generate a combined dataset;applying a cryptographic one-way hash function on the combined datasetto generate a hash result; and comparing the hash result with thedigital signature to determine whether the hash result matches with thedigital signature.
 17. The computing device of claim 16, wherein theinstructions are further configured to instruct the at least oneprocessor to assign a user identification to the user of the user deviceto uniquely identify the user among a plurality of users of thecomputing device; and the user identifier includes the useridentification.
 18. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the userdevice comprises a mobile phone; and the user information includes aphone number of the mobile phone.
 19. The computing device of claim 18,wherein the memory stores the secret that is shared between thecomputing apparatus and the computing device.